Beginning in November 2024, the Silicon Valley-based laboratory OpenAI made their latest artificially intelligent language model, GPT-3, available for public use as an Application Programming Interface (API). For digital content marketers, the launch of GPT-3 may mark a new dawn in the industry—one in which everyone has access to instant, human-like text created by powerful AIs.
In an industry where “disruption” is little more than a buzzword, GPT-3 holds the potential to genuinely disrupt. In the year ahead, strong AI-written content might stake new ground for marketers who will no longer have to rely on humans to power their content strategy.
But is GPT-3 ready for mass adoption, and should marketers take it seriously? After all, its public API is not without its critics, and some allege that OpenAI’s model is prone to bias, prejudice, and is still far from being able to produce truly intelligent and spontaneous text.
To demystify some of the questions surrounding GPT-3, we’ll have to look at the facts. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at GPT-3 and discuss its potential use cases (and disruptive potential) for digital marketing in the years to come.
What Is GPT-3?
Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) is the world’s largest and most computationally complex language model ever created. Using 175 billion machine learning parameters, GPT-3 generates rich, nuanced, and incredibly human-like text on demand.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a not-for-profit organization by business magnate Elon Musk in order to create “human-friendly” AI. Since the organization’s founding, the “GPT” series of language models have employed neural networks to crawl the web, learn how language is utilized, and produce text-based on machine learning.
With a simple prompt, such as “baking a pie”, the GPT-3 algorithm can produce coherent, error-free and almost eerily convincing text. As seen below, GPT-3 generated prose virtually indistinguishable from what you might read in a contemporary novel based on this short prompt.
Screenshot of AI-generated text from the “Playground” feature of the GPT-3 API
Try GPT-3 Online Demo
Aren’t convinced that GPT-3 can replace human writers? Judge for yourself by using the “Playground” feature of OpenAI’s GPT-3 API. Simply input a brief prompt, and watch as the algorithm produces an amazing volume of prose based on your initial text.
This GPT-3 demo is perhaps the most eye-opening introduction to this powerful new technology. Although it is still held back by a few basic flaws—for instance, the AI tends to unnaturally repeating certain turns of phrase—there’s little doubt that GPT-3 is the most lifelike and compelling use of natural language ever produced by a machine.
How to Use GPT-3 for Content Marketing
For marketers, GPT-3 presents numerous interesting possibilities that couldn’t exist without it. Below, we’ve listed just a few of the exciting developments that may be on the horizon for content marketers, copywriters, digital marketers alike.
Intelligent Chatbots
Every year, AI-powered chatbots become increasingly sophisticated. Today, chatbots handle over 68% of customer support chats from start to finish. In a future with truly indistinguishable AI-generated text, basically all customer support queries can be resolved with chatbots that incorporate more convincing and natural prose.
At present, chatbots are far from perfect and there is some evidence that they lead to customer dissatisfaction. Improving the chatbot experience can go a long way toward expediting support wait times and increasing customer satisfaction rates.
Content Writing at Scale
In 2024, content is still king. If you want your SEO strategy to be effective, you have to be prepared to crank out large volumes of high-quality content. Both of these conditions are critical.
If the content is voluminous but error-ridden and thinly researched, your strategy is bound to fail; the same is true for impressive content that’s sparsely published. With GPT-3, the possibility of generating rich, valuable content at scale is possible.
Although it wouldn’t be advisable to use GPT-3 to create the entirety of your published content, it can certainly suffice to add to your output or to fill out sections of articles that may need some supplementary details.
Headline Writing
How long does it take you to write a winning headline? It’s a delicate art, crafting the pitch-perfect headline that strikes the right balance between provocative and authentic. GPT-3 can help you with that. If you’re tired of running A/B tests on countless headline ideas, consider using OpenAI’s software to create new ideas for captivating headlines and introductions.
Generating Code
Content marketers should know their way around programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in order to create a visually appealing website. Amazingly, GPT-3 can even produce code to help improve a website’s visual presentation. One technologist found that GPT-3 was able to build a layout generator using JavaScript based on any given prompt.
Questions and Answers (FAQs)
FAQ sections help a website rank, but building them can be a tedious process. GPT-3 can produce instant answers to commonly asked questions, so you don’t have to go through the process of writing each answer yourself.
Streamlined Copyediting
Copyediting is a labor-intensive and often laborious process. Using error-free, auto-generated software could, in theory, make redundant professional copywriters who can command up to $76,000 annually for their services according to the top of their pay scale on Glassdoor. For smaller marketing firms, this can present significant cost savings.
OpenAI’s GPT-3: The Future of Content Marketing?
The implications of GPT-3 for marketers are profound. In 2024, we may finally see AI produce written copy that can pass the Turing test and cross the decades-old barrier into human-like communication.
That’s not to say that GPT-3 will replace human writers outright—if that were the case, I’d be out of a job before long. Rather, GPT-3 is a tool used to aid in the creative process, save time, and reduce expenses. Tomorrow’s most competitive marketing firms will treat it as such.
If you’re a content marketer, you would be remiss not to take GPT-3 seriously. However, it’s only one component of an effective content strategy. To be truly competitive, you need a team of skilled and consistent human writers. At Little Dragon Media, they can help with that. Hire content experts to build a content writing team that can produce rankable content at scale. Click here to get started today.
