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You copywriters are being replaced by AI..

csalvato

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Rawseed

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Saying that a machine can replace a human in copywriting is like saying that a McDonalds cook is going to replace a chef at a five-star restaurant.

A machine could write serviceable copy, but it can't write great copy.

Great copy is based on a Big Idea. Machines can't create a Big Idea.

Big Ideas require creativity. Big Ideas require new connections.

AI can replace average copywriters, but they can't replace replace great copywriters.
 

Bekit

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Yeah. It's like saying that e-commerce will take away the job of top sales reps.

Just because a computer can sell products doesn't mean that there's no place left in the marketplace for a person who is skilled at closing deals.

Copywriting is salesmanship in print.

If AI is creating (and tweaking and iterating on) product descriptions, headlines, and other formulaic elements of copywriting, good. That stuff is boring for a real person to do anyway.

But when somebody needs to write words that sell, it will be a very long time before AI can match the work of top copywriters.
 
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Lex DeVille

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Told you all this was coming for years. People said it would never happen, even though it was already happening. We probably won't live longer either.

;)
 

John D.

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AI will never learn human empathy -- which is at the core of great copywriting.

Sure, it may reach some superficial levels and slap up a bunch of 'power words' to form some basic selling points, but it will never probe into the deeper underlying reasons of why people buy.

And hence my indifference to potential scares like these.
 
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CareCPA

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I would hypothesize that it will replace about 90% of copywriters. I think it will work for the average business, but not for a business that is aiming to be great.

I would kindly suggest that in the copywriting field, just like most professions, the majority of people have picked up a couple tips and tricks, and use them over and over again. Very few are doing the kind of digging that a "great" copywriter will do to uncover true motivations.
 

Lex DeVille

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AI will never learn human empathy -- which is at the core of great copywriting.

Sure, it may reach some superficial levels and slap up a bunch of 'power words' to form some basic selling points, but it will never probe into the deeper underlying reasons of why people buy.

And hence my indifference to potential scares like these.

This is the most common argument people make after it has been proven that AI can write copy. But what you're describing, empathy, doesn't have to be understood to be learned or practiced as many serial killers can attest to.

The next argument is that even if AI can feign empathy, it will never be able to replicate creativity. The argument goes deeper and deeper and keeps going each time another anti-AI position is proven incorrect.

I don't think copywriters need to worry about AI anytime soon. Especially not creative copywriters, since creativity is subjective, and even if AI can create its own works of art, that doesn't mean everyone will like them.

AI will eventually be capable of anything a human is capable of, and far more than we are currently capable of in time. Assuming AI does not stop progressing, then this will happen. It isn't a matter of "if" but "when." We just don't know when that will be outside of current predictions.
 

John D.

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Told you all this was coming for years. People said it would never happen, even though it was already happening. We probably won't live longer either.

;)
Waiting on your next course -- 'How to Use Y.O.U. Focus to Crush Evil Copy Terminators' :)
 
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Lex DeVille

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Waiting on your next course -- 'How to Use Y.O.U. Focus to Crush Evil Copy Terminators' :)

Ha! I'm smarter than that. The next course will be "How to switch skills before AI takes your job!"

Same reason my most recent course was on how to find clients beyond Upwork! ;)
 

csalvato

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The Luddite-ish arguments here are clouding some people's better judgement, I think. You sound like truck or cab drivers complaining about autonomous vehicles.

"It's all about the human connection to my passengers, man!"

According to JP Morgan's CMO, at least one core engagement metric (click throughs) has increased by 450%.

Most of corporate copywriting is having an eye for headlines, and headlines drive most engagement.

If psychotherapy can be done by an AI, then copy absolutely can be...and both already are.

In the years to come, the opportunity is finding great applications of copy-writing robots now (i.e. great products), not the copy itself.
 

AgainstAllOdds

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Saying that a machine can replace a human in copywriting is like saying that a McDonalds cook is going to replace a chef at a five-star restaurant.

You're making the wrong comparison.

A better one would be saying that a robot can replace a chef at a five-star restaurant:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKCVol2iWcc


Maybe they can't at an extremely high and consistent level yet, but they will.

AI will never learn human empathy -- which is at the core of great copywriting.

Yeah they can.

They run a bunch of statistics on what works and what doesn't, and then utilize the techniques/words/etc that work. They can be a lot more effective than humans.

I would hypothesize that it will replace about 90% of copywriters. I think it will work for the average business, but not for a business that is aiming to be great.

This to start.

You guys are underestimating the power of AI. On a long enough timeline, AI will always beat out humans. I would predict that the timeline for top copywriting is over 20 years, however, it will happen.
 
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ChrisV

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Rawseed

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A better one would be saying that a robot can replace a chef at a five-star restaurant:

Your video just shows that a robot can cook food.

I can teach a McDonalds cook to cook food at a five-star restaurant.

What I can't teach the cook is how to create new recipes.

It's the creativity of the chef and the uniqueness of the dishes that make the restaurant five-stars.

There are people out there that can make a replica of a Mona Lisa. An AI can make a replica of a Mona Lisa too.

But, neither could have created the original.
 
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LittleWolfie

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AI will never learn human empathy -- which is at the core of great copywriting.

Sure, it may reach some superficial levels and slap up a bunch of 'power words' to form some basic selling points, but it will never probe into the deeper underlying reasons of why people buy.

Ah, now I know why I am struggling with copywriting.

I use boomerang while no sales,it is way better than I am at getting people to respond.

It tells me if emails are too long or short, need more questions, sound too stilted and machine like( yes the robot is better at sounding human than I am.)
 

spreng

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is anyone in here involved in AI? Startups or other? I think that would be an interesting field to pioneer.
 
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ChrisV

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is anyone in here involved in AI? Startups or other? I think that would be an interesting field to pioneer.
I am.

This is the most common argument people make after it has been proven that AI can write copy. But what you're describing, empathy, doesn't have to be understood to be learned or practiced as many serial killers can attest to.
Yes. AI trains on a model. Essentially it looks at what humans do, then abstracts from there. If you feed a ML (Machine Learning) algorithm a bunch of great pieces of 'copy' if figures out what they have in common then starts from there. It doesn't need 'empathy.' It just needs to know what 'empathy' looks like.

I seriously warn anyone who questions the power of AI. AI outsmarting humans is inevitable.

For example, Starcraft is considered one of the most complex and difficult strategy games. So what happens when you put a trainer AI system up against the worlds best Starcraft players? It F*cking annihilates them.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFMRDm_H9Sg


It's embarrassing.

It's the creativity of the chef and the uniqueness of the dishes that make the restaurant five-stars.

Creativity is going to be cracked soon too.

Like I noted in the innovative product thread, creativity is just combining old ideas in new ways. Creative people are essentially "idea DJs" creating remixes. It's not going to be hard for AI to do that soon.

From Steve Jobs (and research backs up this idea as well)

"It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you’re doing. Picasso had a saying: good artists copy, great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas, and I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

"If you're gonna make connections which are innovative ... you have to not have the same bag of experiences as everyone else does, or else you're going to make the same connections as everybody else, and then you won't be innovative, and then nobody will give you an award."


AI will make almost all human labor obsolete, and like @Lex DeVille said, it's not a matter of "if" it's a matter of "when."
 
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Andy Bell

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Eventually, Probably...but were probably 20 years behind a machine that can write no fluff copy.

I pay monthly fees for some of the best spinners and copywriter bots out there and they all pump out fluff and half unreadable content. You could probably pass the turing test with them if you pretend you were a new to the country immigrant with poor grammar and spelling...but way behind what someone with good grammar and spelling could write.

For sure its going to get there one day, but if I were a writer I wouldn't be worried that I would be replaced in my lifetime.
 

csalvato

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For sure its going to get there one day, but if I were a writer I wouldn't be worried that I would be replaced in my lifetime.

I think this is a mistake.

I think everyone should be considering a very real future where computers do their jobs. Even highly skilled jobs like software development are being pursued by AI companies by analyzing all public GitHub contributions, for example.

The truth is, anything can be automated/done by a computer. The real challenge with AI is acquiring enough data for the model. But we each are generating billions of data points each year on the most important and valuable things we do, and giving that away for free.

It's just a matter of time. We all need to be considering contingency plans.
 
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Lex DeVille

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I think this is a mistake.

I think everyone should be considering a very real future where computers do their jobs. Even highly skilled jobs like software development are being pursued by AI companies by analyzing all public GitHub contributions, for example.

The truth is, anything can be automated/done by a computer. The real challenge with AI is acquiring enough data for the model. But we each are generating billions of data points each year on the most important and valuable things we do, and giving that away for free.

It's just a matter of time. We all need to be considering contingency plans.

What's funny is the contingency plan might be to do what we love. AI replaces the workforce, overhead drops, cost of living lowers, and we're freed up from working so hard to make ends meet.

This is speculation, but assuming things go that route, and I'm average Joe out of work (but not struggling for money) then I turn to hobbies, passions, exploration, creation to fill my time. I assume others would do the same. They wouldn't just sit around and wait to die (some might).

Coaching will be even more popular as this happens since we'll seek teachers and mentors to help us learn new skills that we didn't have time for before. We may turn to AI for some of this as well, but many people will still fear AI and will seek the human connection.

Creativity will probably be replicated at some point. The last safe haven seems like it could be individual creativity. Unless AI can somehow form my ideas and create them before I'm capable of doing so.

Beyond that, it will be beneficial to own AI brands, but who knows how long that can last once we start questioning ethics in regards to machines.
 

Departed

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You're making the wrong comparison.

A better one would be saying that a robot can replace a chef at a five-star restaurant:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKCVol2iWcc


Maybe they can't at an extremely high and consistent level yet, but they will.



Yeah they can.

They run a bunch of statistics on what works and what doesn't, and then utilize the techniques/words/etc that work. They can be a lot more effective than humans.



This to start.

You guys are underestimating the power of AI. On a long enough timeline, AI will always beat out humans. I would predict that the timeline for top copywriting is over 20 years, however, it will happen.

"They run a bunch of statistics on what works and what doesn't, and then utilize the techniques/words/etc that work. They can be a lot more effective than humans."

This is exactly the point. Imagine doing millions of split tests on a single text. 70% of visitors stop reading around line 4? Change line 4 (in x amount of ways). All learnings from this text can then be applied to other texts and vice versa. With so many possible data points (scroll activity, session time etc.) it can learn 1000x faster than any human and optimize and implement learnings on the fly.
 

ChrisV

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Remember all those Lumber Jacks that said machines would never take their jobs?


Based on a True story.
 
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ChewingCandy

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AI will never learn human empathy
True, but it doesn't have to understand human empathy.

I think AlphaGo doesn't even know what Go is, but that didn't stop it from beating the world champion.

And please check out the Boston Dynamics, I feel like the end of the world is coming when I saw what they are doing.
 

Walter Hay

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We may turn to AI for some of this as well, but many people will still fear AI and will seek the human connection.
This brought to my mind public speaking. I cannot see AI ever being able to read an audience, or stir the emotions, prompting people to act now! The human connection is essential in that case.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is AI never going to replace conversation?

Walter
 

AgainstAllOdds

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"They run a bunch of statistics on what works and what doesn't, and then utilize the techniques/words/etc that work. They can be a lot more effective than humans."

This is exactly the point. Imagine doing millions of split tests on a single text. 70% of visitors stop reading around line 4? Change line 4 (in x amount of ways). All learnings from this text can then be applied to other texts and vice versa. With so many possible data points (scroll activity, session time etc.) it can learn 1000x faster than any human and optimize and implement learnings on the fly.

Awesome point.
 
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AgainstAllOdds

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Your video just shows that a robot can cook food.

I can teach a McDonalds cook to cook food at a five-star restaurant.

What I can't teach the cook is how to create new recipes.

It's the creativity of the chef and the uniqueness of the dishes that make the restaurant five-stars.

There are people out there that can make a replica of a Mona Lisa. An AI can make a replica of a Mona Lisa too.

But, neither could have created the original.

You're way overestimating how much people care about "creativity".

If the robot can make me a perfect steak every single time, then I'm going to get a steak from that robot every single time when I want steak -- especially when it's cheaper and better than all the alternatives.

And yeah, you can teach it to create new recipes.

DATA POINTS: This guy likes the following foods. Individuals that like these foods like these tastes. These tastes are derived from these ingredients. These are the individual's dietary goals (parameters). This guy wants the food to look nice because he wants to take a picture for Instagram. These are the colors that should be used for most likes on Instagram. This is how I should arrange the food.

Then beep boop boop, and you have a new dish.

We're not there yet, but we will be, and in our lifetimes for sure.
 

Nice_home

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View: https://youtu.be/zhkTHkIZJEc


Here's a video about the former World Chess Champion and Grandmaster talking about his experience playing against Deep Blue, and how "inevitable" it was for him to ultimately lose to the machine.

I definitely feel "creativity" or "big ideas" are completely not important in the context of this conversation..., if a computer can automatically compare real sales data based on real-time copywriting changes, ultimately it can "formulaically" find the "best-selling" copy, regardless whether it has emotions or creativity whatsoever.
 

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