3 Ways AI Sucks

Artificial Intelligence can be pretty amazing. Lightening fast, surprisingly witty, and of course exceptionally efficient. However, it can also present challenges related to ethics, privacy, and socio-economic impacts that need to be carefully addressed. How do we know that? We asked ChatGPT 😉

If you’ve been using AI for even a short time, you may have found a few shortcomings. We know we have, and in some ways AI can really suck. Yep, you heard that right. 

When using AI, here are a few things to watch out for as experienced first-hand by Brooke Hawkins—a real live human and designer.

1. Generic, Repetitive Content:

Have you ever read something and been like, yeah, AI wrote that. Exactly. When you get that vibe, what do you do? You move on because no one wants to read from a robot … you want to read from a human. 

So if you do use AI for anything: Proof it. Humanize it. In other words: Un AI it. 

For example, my husband was once let go from a contract gig in an email. Upon reading it, you knew immediately the content was written by AI which made it sting even more. The email was too formal, and complementary—it felt fake instead of being down-to-earth, which is what we’re all craving in this technology-driven world … real. And, AI doesn't give us that.

2. Inaccurate Content:

This has happened to me so many times. When I've gone to AI to write content, guess what? I can't easily fact check it to see if it's correct because I'm not an expert in that field, nor does it come with sources for the information. 

For example, my dad asked his AI assistant the other day (he loves that thing) to tell me about me "Brooke Hawkins" and it said I owned a roofing company. What?! I am the farthest thing from a roofer, haha. But if you didn't know me, you might just believe the answer.

I’ve also asked @ChatGPT to write some code for websites I’m designing, however, the code doesn't work. And since I'm not a developer, I don't have the knowledge to look through the lines of code and figure out the issue. So I am back to square one. So while AI can seem like a shortcut, you do have to have some level of knowledge about the topic you’re asking about. That way, if it doesn’t work, you’ll be able to fix it.

3. Boring Content:

AI is taking information from all over the internet and spitting out an answer in a few seconds. It's pretty impressive, but sometimes, when you read it, it can put you to sleep. There's not much originality to it. We’re inundated with content EVERY day through social media, emails, ads, TV, etc. We want real, quality, authentic content, otherwise, we’re moving on.

So how do we make AI suck less?

1. Prompts:
   The key is in the "prompts." For the best results, you have to guide the conversation. Instead of taking the first, quick answer, it’s important to dive deeper. Keep the conversation going and give it as much context as you can. Let it learn as you chat.

2. Proofing:
   If you can proof it for accuracy, AI can be super helpful. For example, if I need it to condense a blog post into a one-setence summary for an email campaign, it can spit out a pretty great option or at least get me started.

While AI can be valuable, don't rely too heavily on it alone. Instead, create something awesome and authentic that comes from YOU. A human.