A Comparison of AI Content Writing and Human Content Writing

The debate between AI replacing human writers and taking over jobs due to its fast performance and cost-friendliness continues to surge over the internet.

While some optimists welcome and embrace the use of AI tools to aid themselves in writing, others worry about their jobs being automated and taken away by AI.

In this regard, how do we view, compare, and understand AI writing compared to human writing?

Let’s take a look.

Understanding AI Writing

At a glance, generative AI writing is quick, generic, cheap in cost and free of grammatical errors.

At a deeper look, many qualities define generative AI’s writing, such as verbosity and the occasional errors in information about facts, people, and things.

At a deeper look, many qualities define generative AI’s writing, such as verbosity and the occasional errors in information about facts, people, and things.

Although generative AI tools like ChatGPT have powerful analytical capabilities that are being expanded and refined, and have forecasted tremendous benefits for various industries, when it comes to generating content, the technology has its flaws—at least till now.

Owing to these flaws, anybody generating content using AI tools should work to humanize it, either manually or using a tool like an AI humanizer.

Conclusionally, the era when AI tools would become so advanced that not a single bit of human intervention will be needed to vet their work is still a bit far fetched from reality.

To further the debate, we will understand the pros and cons of AI tools and their writing. Here’s a detailed breakdown:

Pros & Cons of AI Writing

The pros of AI tools and its writing are what sets it apart from human writing positively. However, its cons are its limitations and areas of improvement, which give human writers an edge over it.

Pros:

1. Fast:

One of the biggest privileges of AI tools; they are blazing fast and responsive. On average, ChatGPT can scrape one article of a thousand words in a minute or less.

That is impressive speed, considering it can take a human writer about 5-6 hours to write one premium blog post, due to reasons, such as research, details, outlining, refinement, proofreading, and more.

Clearly, the speed of AI gives it an edge over human writers. But it is just one aspect of the whole bunch.

2. Tireless:

Another aspect of AI tools is that they don’t get tired. You can use them as much as you want, and they don’t object. What it means is that the AI tools can write continuously without any fatigue affecting their work.

The ability to work tirelessly doesn’t improve the writing quality of AI tools, but on the flip side, it doesn’t affect the quality either, unlike in our case.

That’s why I’m deeming the-ability-to-work-nonstop-without-losing-one’s-mind aspect as a plus point of AI tools, against human writers.

3. 24/7 availability:

AI tools are at service 24/7, and you can use them whenever you want.

For businesses, increased availability means a lot because it translates to increased productivity, which can translate to resource-saving, cost-reduction, and better revenue.

Can businesses be blamed for replacing humans with AI?

4. Cost-friendly:

The capabilities and abilities of AI technology allow it to beat human resources in terms of cost.

The AI tools are able to scrape and produce dozens of articles with minimum cost (ChatGPT 3 is free), while human resources do the same work at a lot more cost than AI.

But don’t get so optimistic yet, “value” is also a thing. A human-written article might get you 10x more value in terms of output compared to an AI-written one, which can impact cost whether in terms of revenue or user engagement.

5. Faces no writer’s block:

One great aspect of AI tools is that they don’t face something like writer’s block.

For context, writer’s block means when a writer runs out of ideas.

It is a common obstruction in human writing that AI tools don’t face because of their intensive training in data which allows them to scan millions of sources (books, articles, magazines) to search for ideas and fill the gaps.

6. Flawless grammar:

According to ChatGPT, it is possible for it to make grammatical mistakes if the scale and complexity of a task is very large.

I personally have never seen ChatGPT make a single grammatical error, which leads me to say that generative AI tools are 99% immune to making grammatical mistakes.

 But the same cannot be said for human beings.

7. Easy to source:

Compared to human writers, artificial intelligence software and tools are easy to source.

Accessing an AI tool and applying for its subscription can be done within minutes, which makes AI a go-to source for businesses to meet their writing needs.

Now, let’s discuss some of the cons of AI writing tools.

Cons:

1. Plagiarism:

Due to the training data of AI, its repetitive writing, public availability, and limitations, its writing can easily contain plagiarism.

Plagiarism in writing is unacceptable because, first: it is considered unethical, second: it questions a business or individual’s authenticity.

2. Potential to mislead:

Artificial intelligence tools are still not immune to mistakes.

These tools can generate wrong results, such as false information about a fact, person, or thing, which can mislead the audience if the information is not corrected.

But that’s not it. Sometimes, the AI tool ChatGPT even contradicts itself. Sometimes, it retracts its previous statements and deems them as wrong.

So, it’s clear that we cannot completely rely on AI tools for a job as sensitive as writing.

3. Mundane style:

By default, AI has a very generic style of writing.

It writes in a robotic style, with a mundane tone, and has the same repetitive pattern. If you are generating content from AI tools, you might need to spend some time rectifying its style and tone, if your business cannot use it.

AI tools’ generic way of writing may not entice a reader’s interest and engage it, which is why this aspect falls under its cons.

4. Can’t use emotions:

Another big drawback of AI technology is its inability to give the content an emotional touch.

The use of emotional intelligence to communicate with the audience helps leave a lasting impression on a reader’s mind.

Sure, you can ask ChatGPT to tell a funny story in an article and make it relatable. But human expression of emotions goes beyond just telling a funny story.

5. No personal experiences:

An AI tool is just an online tool, what personal experiences could it have?

Unlike human beings, AI models are unable to share personal experiences in writing, at least not until now.

Sharing personal experiences with your audience is an effective way to communicate emotions and authenticity, something that AI tools can’t do.

6. No expertise & original insights:

Unlike human beings, AI tools are unable to showcase expertise on a matter.

Generative AI tools are trained on data to write what has already been written. That’s why AI doesn’t excel in specific fields, let alone sharing original and expert insights.

7. Generic content:

The content AI tools produce is overall generic based on what it knows.

Based on many factors, human beings can produce complex thoughts that share original ideas, write detailed articles on specific parts of a subject, and so on.

However, artificial intelligence has not come this far yet. What a tool like ChatGPT writes is usually a paraphrased version of the material available online.

Understanding Human Writing

Human writing can be as low-quality as AI’s, but if done rightly, it can communicate a world of emotions, expertise, and insights.

It can be nuanced, complex, and critical, thanks to our intelligence and the ability to think freely.

The copywriting abilities of human writers have enabled brands to communicate feelings and vibes with unknown people using as few words as in “Just do it” and “I'm Lovin' It”. It’s all possible with our senses and the abilities to understand human emotions.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of human writing.

Pros & Cons of Human Writing

Pros:

1. Can prevent plagiarism:

To be able to prevent plagiarism is one of the benefits of hiring a human writer.

Human beings are capable of writing unique content.

Even if human writers were to write on a single title every time, by utilizing headings, references, citations, quotations, paraphrasing techniques, and a plagiarism remover, they can ensure their writing is unique and has a minimum error.

2. Accurate information:

As stated, AI tools can generate wrong information sometimes.

On the flip side, human writers have the consciousness to fact-check and verify the information they come across, allowing them to deliver authentic information and not risk misleading people and bringing down their reputation.

3. Can write in different styles:

Unlike AI tools that follow a generic voice and tone in writing, human writers are able to employ different writing styles based on their audience and the type of business.

For example, a store that sells baby accessories will use cute words and phrases for the parents to convey a sense of delicacy and babiness.

Another example is a scientific research paper using formal and to-the-point language to convey research findings.

4. Can use emotions:

Human beings can express raw emotions and connect to their audience deeply.

Artificial intelligence can only mimic human emotional expression based on what it has learned. But it cannot truly express itself. But as humans, we can use different emotions to convey different messages that otherwise cannot be understood.

5. Personal experience:

Human beings are also capable of sharing personal experiences such as a past story.

Sharing personal experiences adds to the uniqueness and authenticity of the content. It is one of the best ways to befriend readers when you tell them something you have personally experienced.

6. Expertise & original insights:

Compared to artificial intelligence, human beings can interact with the tangible world, and learn, understand, and excel in particular fields or subjects, allowing them to become experts and share their hard-earned expertise with fellow human beings.

AI tools can learn about these expertise through their datasets, but they cannot experience the tangible world themselves to form expertise and original insights.

7. Personalized & nuanced content:

Human writers can work to personalize content unlike AI tools.

Though AI analytics help humans understand their audience and their preferences, they cannot personalize it as precisely as humans. It takes a lot of psychology to understand what is suitable for the audience and what isn’t.

All the brands creating personalized content for their audience hire expert human writers such as copywriters that create content in a way which makes the audience feel they were kept in view.

Cons:

1. Slow:

Human beings are significantly slow compared to machines and software.

2. Needs rest:

Another drawback of human writers is that they can’t work continuously. The mind and body require rest, which in comparison to AI, is a drawback.

3. Limited availability:

Because human beings have needs, it is impossible to avail human assistance 24/7.

4. Costly:

On average human writers can cost a company way more than an AI tool. Some of the most powerful AI tools online are available for free to the public, compared to independent freelancers that can cost hundreds of dollars for a single piece of content.

5. Writer’s block:

Writer’s block is a common obstruction in human writing, which can take a toll on the time taken to: finish a piece of work or its quality.

Due to slower brain processing and limited knowledge of human beings, writer’s block can be difficult to overcome at times.

This gives AI tools an edge over human writers. The technology has immensely speedy processing and can scan millions of texts to gain inspiration and explore ideas.

6. Prone to grammatical errors:

Another small drawback of humans is that they make mistakes.

Due to human beings’ tendency to err, proofreading and editing becomes necessary to ensure the content is flawless and neat, which needs additional time.

7. Difficult to source:

Lastly, human writers who qualify for a certain post only can be difficult to find.

Finding and hiring human writers comes with some difficulties for HR managers. In some cases, interested or available candidates may not qualify for the job.

Comparison of AI & Human Writing

Let’s combine the pros and cons of both AI and human writing:

AI Writing

Human Writing

When we compare AI writing with human writing, we see that there are certain qualities of AI writing that humans can use, and certain qualities of human writing that AI can use. In this case, we can say that the best practice is combining AI writing with human writing.

Where AI tools allow humans to write articles in seconds, humans can use AI’s capabilities and add their distinctive touch to its writing by humanizing it.

This will allow humans to use the AI technology to their advantage, and write faster, while preserving the human qualities of the work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AI tools and human writers have different pros and cons. Use cases of both resources can depend on the needs of individuals or businesses.

 In my opinion, as AI tools excel at speedy work, they have great capabilities to assist human writers, such as in research and ideas finding. Other AI tools such as an AI paraphraser can help human writers paraphrase their work and eliminate grammatical errors.