OK, so maybe I’m a little beyond being a “slightly” older copywriter. That’s what happens when you’ve been writing copy for over 45 years.
You also bump into something else at my age… ageism.
Yup… there is a fear among some prospective clients that I’m too old. I’m not sure what I’m too old for – or why – and so far I’ve been too polite to ask.
But yes, it stings when people look at you and make assumptions about your ability to do good work.
I take a contrary view (shocker!).
I still hear people saying things like, “AI can never write as well as a human copywriter.”
Or, “I asked ChatGPT to write an article, and it was terrible.”
Respectfully, these people are missing the point.
Just because AI can’t entirely replace the full set of skills of a human writer doesn’t mean it can’t be valuable.
Look at this through a different lens…
Back in 1995 I published my first website. Those were the early days of the web as a place for business.
That year there were just 16 million people online.
It wasn’t until 1998 that the number of people using the web hit 100 million.
From zero to 100 million in a little over 3 years.
That rapid rate of change was deeply disruptive to traditional, bricks-and-mortar businesses. Companies were struggling to keep up and adapt.
Now let’s fast-forward to November 2022, and the launch of ChatGPT.
Who’s opinion should you listen to?
Always a tough question. Right now there are plenty of conflicting views when it comes to the future impact of AI on the careers of writers and copywriters.
At one extreme, there are those who claim AI is just hype, a passing fad, and that it will never replace human writers.
At the other extreme, some copywriters are worried their jobs will be completely obliterated by AI within the next few years.
The truth, as it almost always the case, lies somewhere in between.
As you can imagine, I’ve been playing with ChatGPT and GPT-4 for a while now.
I’ve been using GPT as a brainstorming buddy, a research assistant, a first draft copy and content writer, a social media writer… and more.
Honestly, it’s incredibly good. Mind-blowing really, when you consider where this technology was just a few months ago.
This time I asked GPT-4 to write me a 40-page Kindle book I could publish on Amazon.
The title of the book is… Brain Sharpeners: 48 Natural Foods That Support Brain Health
My father was a farmer and a natural-born entrepreneur. I grew up watching him try various ways to expand his farm business.
For example, in the photo above you can see him standing by his milk carton delivery van in the early 1960s. As far as I can tell, he was the first farmer in the UK to carton the milk from his farm, and sell the cartons from refrigerated vending machines in local towns.
By the age of about 8 or 9, I was out there on the farm with my brothers, earning my pocket money… bringing in the cows for milking twice a day, baling the hay in spring, harvesting wheat and barley in the summer… and helping to fill those vending machines each day.