The Day I Discovered Copy.AI 🦾

This post may make little to no sense, in the end, this is just a reflection from a Sunday night and a few days of misusing AI Copywriting tools. Shortly said, a little bit of a shitpost.  

AI copywriters exist to make your life easier,

or so that’s what we’re led to believe. Instead of spending hours trying to write the perfect blog post, it could be a lot quicker if the AI writers could take care of it for you. It would mean less time gathering insights and data, creating an outline and sitting down in front of the computer to type away.

But is AI copywriting really that attractive? How about human-feel and how does AI keep up with the average Instagram-influencer or general user? It was a late Sunday night as I and Remy, my partner in crime and many other things, discovered copy.ai. At once we started playing around with the 7-day free trial, as we decided to become influencers for a few days. Since we both suck at copywriting our own social media posts it felt like a decently good idea, at least as we were both very overly tired.

We stumbled across copy.ai via Instagram Reels

Reels are like TikTok-reposts for us that do not have TikTok installed. An American Student shared “the ultimate hack for essay writing”; – simply let an AI do it for you! According to me and Remy, this is not the greatest idea, as this AI would merely provide me with a bare pass, however, as both the user provides better keywords and as the AI evolves, I am sure the results will improve. Safe to say though, neither of us would let an AI write our essays, both for the quality issue and the ethical issue, however, Remy admitted that he would not mind using an AI to brainstorm different formulations.

One might argue that since you have to provide the AI keywords, you are the author, and you provide the knowledge, meaning that you indirectly showcase your knowledge in your essay writing. I would like to battle this at once as an essay rarely has the point of showcasing raw knowledge, but rather is a way to demonstrate your ability to apply said knowledge, which means that allowing an AI to formulate your points kind of defeats the purpose.

Now, we simply just could not leave it at that, instead, we googled a few posts on the subject, turning into a  Reddit research, blogs using repetitively used royalty-free images of robots, and face-palming by all-caps sections of bread text. 

One of the posts I stumbled across was Will AI Replace Copywriters, written by Gradford Kaw at Hackernoon. To quote; 

“With the advancements of technology, and the growing demand for automated processes, in due time our world will change before our eyes. Especially with the current pandemic, people have realized how powerful the internet can be, primarily because they have the capacity to work 24/7.”

I could not help but wonder; who’s first thought be: “yes, now I can work even more!” Perhaps the writer’s intention was to imply that you could work whenever, and not the entire time, but me being me, that is not how I understood it. I am fairly sure that even though the internet was created for productive things (hint: universities) the average user may or may not use it way too productively. After all, the internet is for corn, or so I have heard.

My second reaction was how stiff the text felt. Bradford writes about “ selling anything that involves stringing words” and why copywriters won’t be completely replaced and why he believes the AI will be a great copywriter-companion as data-collectors. After all, he does describe himself as “I sell money at a discount through my copywriting. I love talking about Copy, Marketing, & business!” However, something felt off… Perhaps… he is an AI? 👀

After browsing a few Reddit threads,

I came to the conclusion, that it seems like my opinion of AI  as a complementary tool for brainstorming, is shared. AI might be a tool to help you come up with ideas, but personally, I don’t think it can replace the human feel of when someone writes something they are passionate about. Given though, many blog posts are rapidly produced as filler content, and personally, I am not a fan of noticeably rushed content. 

I have little to no valid experience in copywriting. Can I really just decide what is good and bad content? Well, to not make it too philosophical, as a consumer, I know what I want. A little bit like writing a review on Google. Am I a food critique? No, but I like to eat. And regarding writing, I believe that if you are passionate about the art of writing, that humane passion cannot be replaced by an AI, no matter how many sophisticated keywords you use.

Moving on, another funny article I found; How to Become a Copywriter, written and signed by qopywriter.ai. I could not help but giggle a little. A copywriting tool writing posts about becoming a copywriter. I can’t wait until Siri and Alexa start an Instagram (but not Microsoft’s Cortana, we know how it went with Twitter…), and when the self-ordering machines at Max and McDonalds start to greet me with my favourite meal and weekly updates their McBlog on recommendations from the… kitchen? 😆

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Replace Real Copywriting Skills? was posted by Alex Cattoni on LinkedIn. I do not think this was written by an AI, as I struggle to believe that an AI would use caps. Sincerely, it might seem like a cringe-worthy question, as Alex says, and to me, the caps might seem cringe as well, but in the end, this post does feel a little bit sweeter than Copywriter.ai. I completely agree with Alex Cattoni, who means that AI can never completely replace human copywriting, as emotions play a huge part in human interaction. Cattoni does not believe that AI, even though it is possible to emulate empathy, will be able to replace humans. “I mean, you wouldn’t marry a robot, would you?! No judgment” she writes. Well actually Cattoni, this man “married” a holographic singer.😉

How did it go with my and Remys Instagram posts and captions?

Did we become AI-fluencers? Well, not quite. We didn’t last that long. We posted a few photos. Shortly after, an old friend asked if Remy was alright. Meanwhile, my captions swiftly transferred into my usual deep-fried captions. Anyhow, here are some of our favourites:

Remy’s first post: my summer reset starts now – just me and star of my own movie, the story I write today, Let’s begin… 🌴

And Perhaps even better: “There is no place like a coffee-shop – except, perhaps Fårö”. 

We are still unsure of what this exactly means, but it sure is inspiring. 

I also tried to make a love letter to Remy using AI, where the AI once assumed Remy to be a “big, black, man”, and with another attempt assumed that I was with the three best men on earth. If you would like to read the second letter in full length, click here. 

If you would like to watch a video about our AI adventures, it is here below. We recorded this as we were venturing Gotland in my 60s car, sleeping in our 60s tent. The video did half-on-half end up mainly being me expressing my hate for bold words and short paragraphs. Maybe this video was purely recorded for the summer feelings and the longing for editing something low-maintenance… Hehe. Those projects can also be healthy as a “creative rest”!              

By the end of the day, this post is based on a brief reflection of the giggles from a late Sunday night. See it as a playful conversation while having a fika, and not a well-thought “professional” opinion. And while you’re having that fika, what are your opinions of AI copywriting? Do you use it, and if so, to what extent? 

As you may have figured, the first paragraph was not even written by me, but generated by an AI. All I did was provide a few keywords (such as the title of this post). A click later: my paragraph was born.