This Is Generative AI’s Fatal Flaw

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the limitations and challenges of using Generative AI for sales outreach and content creation. It draws on the author's past experiences with Automated Insights, a company that used AI to automate sports content, to illustrate how Generative AI is often used to replace low-quality human-generated content rather than to create high-quality, valuable content.

🙋 Q&A

[01] AI for Sales

1. What are the author's views on using AI for sales outreach?

• The author argues that using Generative AI for sales outreach is likely to result in low-quality, low-conversion campaigns that alienate more customers than they generate.
• The author notes that human-written sales outreach emails are already often terrible, and Generative AI will simply produce more terrible content at a lower cost, rather than improving the quality of sales outreach.
• The author states that they have never responded to a cold sales email, human-written or otherwise, in over 20 years, and believes they are not alone in this.

2. How does the author's past experience with Automated Insights inform their views on Generative AI?

• The author worked at Automated Insights, a company that used AI to automate sports content, over 15 years ago.
• Automated Insights was able to succeed by producing content in areas where there was already a lot of low-quality, SEO-driven content, rather than by replacing skilled human writers.
• The author argues that Generative AI is similarly replacing low-quality content, but not necessarily improving the overall quality of content.

[02] Limitations of Generative AI

1. What are the key limitations of Generative AI according to the author?

• Generative AI can only create content based on what it has already seen, and cannot truly innovate or create something new.
• Generative AI is good at producing compilable syntax, but cannot deliver real, functional code to customers.
• Generative AI is often used to replace low-quality human-generated content, rather than to create high-quality, valuable content.

2. How does the author view the relationship between Generative AI and human talent?

• The author believes that writers, content creators, and software developers with real-world experience will continue to be valuable, as Generative AI cannot replace their skills and abilities.
• The author argues that Generative AI should be viewed as an assistant to human talent, rather than a replacement for it.
• The author is optimistic that as Generative AI improves, its limitations will become more apparent, and it will be understood as a tool to complement human talent, rather than a replacement for it.