Until late last year, very few people outside of the industry had heard of OpenAI. Yet, today, it’s a household name with a valuation now in the billions. Increasingly viewed as an emerging player within the tech space, it has well-established and dominant digital-first companies worried, with Microsoft doubling down on its investment.
OpenAI can thank ChatGPT for the hype. Within days of it launching the formidable AI-powered chatbot, it had turned the internet upside down. Although it is not without its faults, it is an extraordinary piece of technology.
Needless to say, ChatGPT has generated an enormous amount of hype. To help you navigate your way through this new and emerging space, and better understand how you can use it to supercharge your digital marketing efforts, we’ve gathered the best, most insightful, actionable and engaging perspectives, guides and reports on ChatGPT below.
Background
The Next Word: Where will predictive text take us?
In this fascinating and lengthy essay from 2019, John Seabrook, a New Yorker contributor, takes you on a fascinating journey into the stupefying world of machine-generated content. There’s lots of details, lots of philosophical insight and lots of thoughtful discussion about the game-changing technology which is having its moment in the sun.
A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?
This article, written with the help of GPT-3 in 2020, a powerful language model from OpenAI, gave an impressive glimpse into the future capabilities of generative AI with human input and oversight. “Editing GPT-3’s op-ed was no different to editing a human op-ed,” remarked Amana Fontanella-Khan, an opinion editor at the Guardian (US). “Overall, it took less time to edit than many human op-eds.”
ChatGPT: a quick Q&A to get you up to speed
When ChatGPT was released at the end of 2022, the world lost its mind. Google is dead. Goodbye writers. No more homework wahoo. And so on. This quick and handy Q&A cuts through all the clutter and noise to help get you up to speed with the game-changing technology.
What is ChatGPT, the AI software taking the internet by storm?
In just over eight-minutes, this video explainer from the BBC introduces you to ChatGPT and asks how effective it is, how it can be used and what implications it has for society at large. One of the most interesting things about the platform is it’s conversational nature – it’s designed to feel like you’re talking to a person and not a machine.
New AI chatbot ‘ChatGPT’ interviewed by Channel 4
A very-well conceived news segment from Channel 4 sees the public broadcaster bring to life text-based questions that it has put to ChatGPT and the responses it generates to give a comprehensive and somewhat entertaining introduction to the platform. Questions asked included, “Are you fair and balanced?”, “Are your answers influenced by what your creators’ biases are?” and “Are you a bit woke?”
How ChatGPT Kicked Off an AI Arms Race
The worldwide response to ChatGPT – think giddy excitement – caught everyone by surprise, even the brains behind it. This in depth article from the New York Times explores what the initial success of ChatGPT means for OpenAI, artificial intelligence and the world at large. In conclusion, there’s no going back. A new chapter in AI has begun.
How does ChatGPT differ from human intelligence?
This summary of a conversation held between computer science academics Ellie Pavlick and Thomas R Serre in February 2023 explores the way in which ChatGPT “thinks” – and how human-like this actually is. In short, there’s a lot of interesting similarities.
What is generative AI?
An informative Q&A from Mckinsey & Company that offers an introduction to generative AI. There’s a section on the main types of machine learning models, the types of output that can be generated and the kinds of problems the technology can solve. Key takeaway – there’s huge potential.
The technology
ChatGPT: Optimising language models for dialogue
Using ChatGPT is one thing. Understanding how it works is another. Get to grips with the technology and ideas behind ChatGPT in this informative read from OpenAI, which features examples and illustrations. The section on limitations is good and goes a long way in highlighting how many hurdles there still are to overcome.
Transformers explained: Understand the model behind GPT, BERT and T5
GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer. A transformer, as Google has explained, is a “novel neural network architecture for language understanding”. These transformers have, no pun intended, transformed how machines understand and generate text like humans. This 10-minute video explains it very well.
How tools like ChatGPT could change your business
“Products like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot … are taking technology into realms once thought to be reserved for humans,” notes McKinsey & Company. “With generative AI, computers can now arguably exhibit creativity.” This article dives deeper into what that means for businesses.
Generative AI tools push new boundaries for responsible AI
Ever since the internet came of age we’ve known that lawmakers have been a few steps behind. The same is true of AI. Technology moves fast and we end up playing catch up. Due your due diligence and “apply a critical lens to generative AI” says PwC in this well-considered piece.
The race to build a ChatGPT-powered search engine
The way that search engines work has evolved over the years, but you could argue that minor tweaks aside, the underlying principles are the same. This article from Wired explores the impact ChatGPT might have on search from a user perspective as well as commercial one (e.g. how does this affect advertising?).
Whisper: OpenAI’s open-source speech-transcription program
It’s likely that you’ve never heard of Whisper, “an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system” from OpenAI. That’s okay. Few have. But, according to James Somers in a piece for The New Yorker, a writer and programmer, if you’re really interested in getting ahead of the curve with machine learning, it’s worth getting up to speed with it.
ChatGPT “upgrade” to allow more customisation
As powerful as ChatGPT is, there are some serious limitations to the technology. One of the main ones is the in-built restrictions on output. For example, OpenAI has “made efforts to make the model refuse inappropriate requests”. While admirable, it does hold ChatGPT back, as OpenAI has alluded to in a blog. One way of getting around this is by introducing customisation.
ChatGPT-powered digital marketing
9 ChatGPT prompts every project manager should use
First things first – don’t use ChatGPT “like it’s search”, says Amogh Sarda, co-founder of eesel and former product manager at Intercom. ChatGPT works better when you give it prompts – that’s one of the key secrets to using it effectively. In this short LinkedIn post he’s gathered nine prompts that will help product managers get started.
BuzzFeed unveils new content format “Infinity Quizzes” powered by AI
In February 2023, BuzzFeed announced in a typically self-possessed way, “the first-ever AI-powered quizzes”, which it claims will “revolutionise the way content is written, developed, personalised and consumed”. It represented a strong signal of intent, with the company’s CEO saying that “AI-inspired” content is going to be part of the core business.
What marketers need to know about AI-generated content
This insightful article documents three major takeaways from a webinar on AI-generated content. In summary: training you own model is essential if you want to produce original copy; good writers and editors are still needed; and while AI, for now, isn’t going to replace writers, it will invariably change the way that writer’s write.
What marketers need to know about ChatGPT, Bard and Bing Chatbot
This introduction from HubSpot to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing succinctly summarises the main “conversational AI services”, while also providing some pros and cons. The key takeaway is that they “offer an exciting glimpse into the potential future of AI” – think less time spent on so-called grunt work and more time spent “strategising [and] creating high-impact content”.
How Bain & Company is looking to leverage OpenAI’s tech for marketing
Describing their partnership as an alliance and name-dropping the Coca-Cola Company as the first beneficiary of this collaboration underscores just how important generative AI is to big brands. More detail on what they think about the tech and their plans can be found here (along with a six-minute video featuring leaders from OpenAI and Bain).
GPT-3: How Will This Impact SEO and content marketing?
In 2021, Semrush accurately predicted that GPT-3 was “ going to be a major catalyst for change across content marketing and search”, highlighting key growth areas like producing product descriptions at scale for ecommerce and speeding up the time it takes to write high-quality content.
ChatGPT for SEO: 9 best use cases (and 4 suboptimal ones)
From generating snippets of code fast and writing titles that people simply can’t ignore, Ahrefs’ Si Quan Ong has gathered nine of the best use cases of ChatGPT for SEO. And, to boot, he’s also included four use cases that are not going to deliver any real impact – at least for now. There’s also a video version here.
Extend ChatGPT’s capabilities with an SEO Chrome extension
The team behind this eight-minute video show how you can extend the capabilities of ChatGPT with a neat SEO Chrome extension. Topics covered include keyword research, competitor analysis and content creation – all of which you can do in an incredibly short amount of time.
How to create content with ChatGPT
Subscribe to ChatGPT Plus
ChatGPT is great, but, for now, it has its limitations – the most popularly used version is free after all and still defined as a “research release”. ChatGPT Plus goes some way in addressing these drawbacks, offering access during peak times – which is often – and introductions to new features and improvements ahead of everyone else. It will cost you $20 a month. Interested in a ChatGPT API? Sign up to the waiting list here.
25 ChatGPT prompts to 25X your email copywriting results
The more you know about the ins and outs of copywriting, the better able you’ll be to get ChatGPT to produce the kind of email content that will have an impact. This post is a good introduction to copywriting frameworks, with prompts that are ready for you to adapt and use in ChatGPT.
Creating SEO landing page briefs
Jessica Redman, an SEO consultant and founder of Digeheads, has kindly shared on LinkedIn her process for putting together SEO briefs for landing pages using ChatGPT – and it’s both revealing and helpful in equal measure. She notes, for example, how she has had to “rephrase a few questions” to get what she needs and how she’ll still need to “tweak some areas with my own input”.
5 secrets to writing with Chat GPT
Looking for a short, fuss-free and easy to follow guide that outlines some of the ways in which you can use ChatGPT to write better content? No problem. This five-minute video does the job, with a number of tips and tricks to get you started, including how to write stronger prompts and how to “upgrade your English”.
Generative AI can help you tailor messaging to specific audiences
Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Christopher Graves, founder and president of the Ogilvy Center for Behavioral Science, reveals how you can use the likes of ChatGPT to better communicate with your audience. He recommends looking into versioning, dialogue simulations and creating “relevant analogies”.
How you can use ChatGPT to write marketing copy
Can ChatGPT help you write marketing copy? Yes. Can it do it all by itself with little input? No. For now, the chatbot can help you come up with ideas, create outlines and even deliver very formulaic draft blogs, but, as this useful article highlights, but you’re going to have to be heavily involved to make sure it all makes sense and is edited to raise the quality of the output to a high standard.
New AI classifier for indicating AI-written text
Ensuring that your AI-generated content is as well-written and unique as human-generated content is critical if you’re going to use tools like ChatGPT to generate copy for marketing purposes. This classifier from OpenAI is one way you can assess your output. It’s still early days mind, with the AI-research company acknowledging that it “is not fully reliable”.
Google Search’s guidance about AI-generated content
If you want to use platforms like ChatGPT content to improve your organic reach in search, you really need to know where Google stands on AI-generated content. Luckily, the tech giant has clarified its position by releasing instructive guidance on the matter. In brief, it’s not bothered about how content is produced. What it cares about is quality and originality.
Original ChatGPT illustration by Ruby Chen
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