I started writing on Medium and did not get as many views. Established people advise finding publications and sending them requests to get your writing published, which is good because, as a creator, you need to focus on the distribution part, and getting good numbers is a dream of almost every creator.
But what I believe is that decentralization of content creation is important, and if we need to send requests to get published, then what’s the difference between the old times and now? So this time I publish this post first on Substack and then on Medium.
BTW, let’s focus on the topic. In this post, as it’s my first post, I will come again and again to how I started Substack and how I want it to go. But for now, let’s discuss: who will read when it’s written by AI, and why would we pay for a subscription to any writer to read their content instead of paying for a subscription to an AI app?
If you are asking me-this post is written by me-and it required a lot of time to write. I definitely used an AI grammar check, but if, as a writer, I am thinking that the audience respects original written content, it’s not completely true. In a research study done by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, it was found that people may hardly care about who is writing the content.
I even had a conversation with my friend, who usually writes in newspapers and is known as a good writer in the public policy space, who even said the same thing-that the audience might not care who is writing the piece, but the major thing will remain whether it’s serving the purpose or not.
And in reality, most of the audience focuses on the purpose-and that purpose is related to finding some physical, practical things. But still, at least for now, we need original creators who write content that comes from their original thinking and experiences.
For example, if you are a tech writer and usually write gadget reviews, then no AI can replace you very soon because you write your opinion. Yes, for initial specs and basic details, you can take from AI, but how is that device, and what do you think about it? No AI is going to replace you very soon.
Suppose you are a story or fiction writer. So yes, AI can generate the story, but if you have a personal brand, your audience knows your tone. Yes, after training an LLM on your writing and even speaking style, you can create almost the same content, but in reality, even after the effort, the same tone can’t be achieved.
Yes, in research, a group of audiences who knew that a piece was written by AI instantly gave negative feedback and also said that they are not ready to pay the amount to the writer or creator who is selling that. These days, LinkedIn people are pushing against content written by AI-especially the people who do writing for clients or assist in making their personal brand on LinkedIn.
They claim to be LinkedIn specialists. These people excessively hate AI because it directly affects their jobs. There is a flood of people claiming themselves as personal brand strategists, which shows how businesses are so keen to use LinkedIn for growing their online presence.
There is another question: will people pay for AI-generated content? That’s the question even asked in the studies, and almost 40% of participants said that they are not willing to pay the same amount they pay for human-created content. So it clearly means that people are ready to consume AI-generated content but not ready to pay for it.
The reason might be-why should I pay a creator who is charging another $5 a month? Maybe it’s time for creators to show their creativity to convince the audience that they are providing content that is worth paying for. No matter whether you use AI or not, the matter is how you are providing value or an experience to your audience.
If you are failing to do so, then your audience might leave you and find new creators who are offering them the experience or value they expect. And if you are still believing in the myths of personal branding-that once you create the brand, you can sell any product and your audience will never leave you-remember all of this is just a myth, and nothing happens this way. Your audience might love you, but they know who is providing the experience they want.
So, content creation is going to take a complete turn, and now, as a creator, we need to understand how we can use AI to enhance our creativity, not to make ourselves lazy people who just go to AI tools, type a prompt, and post it.
Your audience is not going to be with you, and AI-generated content will take over-especially if you’re a ghostwriter. Then this is a serious situation for you, and you need to start exploring things for your future.
I will try to explore this again. As AI evolves daily, people-especially after the Ghibli image trend-are changing patterns and adopting AI content. AI content is becoming more adaptable day by day, especially with innovations like Deep Search.
As this is my first post on Substack, I don’t know how many readers I will get. But I know one thing: I will try my best to keep my consistency and write my pieces on my own. You will find many interesting, human-written pieces here. So if you are interested in AI, law and tech, public policy, and marketing, follow me for reading interesting pieces.
Originally published at https://ashutoshtales.substack.com.