Using ChatGPT as a Blog Research and Writing Tool

ChatGPT is a deep-learning natural language processing application developed by Open AI that can simplify research and writing for bloggers.

In today’s digital landscape, bloggers are regularly being challenged to produce high quality, informative blogs to reach their target audience. This can be a daunting task, especially when a blogger is pressed for time and resources. Luckily, with advances in technology, a helping hand is now available: Open AI ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is a text-generating deep-learning means application developed by Open AI. It uses a number of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, including natural language processing (NLP), to help people generate text.

By entering a prompt and providing concise answers to the application’s questions, ChatGPT can provide a starting point for your blog article. It does this by returning the prompt in a new format, with additional verbiage, in order to aid in the research and writing aspects of your blog post.

Using ChatGPT is an efficient way to streamline research and writing. It allows you to skip the preliminary research and start writing. ChatGPT simplifies the research and writing process through three key steps.

The first step is to enter your prompt into the application’s text window. Once your prompt has been entered, the user is then asked to provide answers to questions that are related to the prompt. By submitting your answers, ChatGPT can generate a blog post topic and develop a skeleton structure that can be used as a basis for the content.

The second step is validating the information. After the initial output has been generated, the user can then refine the research by verifying any information that is provided by the program. This is an important step as it ensures that any data provided by the application is accurate.

The third step is to utilise the text output in the blog post. Once your main points have been made, the information generated by ChatGPT can be used to craft content around the main points by providing additional detail. This can be especially helpful if the user is short on ideas or lacks the depth of knowledge required for a particular subject.

ChatGPT is an effective tool for bloggers because of the time and resources it saves. Instead of putting in hours of research and writing, users can quickly get the information they need and have a solid foundation for their blog post.

Unlike other AI applications, ChatGPT is extremely versatile, offering blog writers an effective means of generating fresh ideas, verifying sources of material, and providing structure and direction to their writing. Furthermore, the application’s natural language capability makes it quite effective at helping users stay in tune with readers’ interest and quickly provide quality material.

To conclude, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that offers real and tangible benefits to bloggers. It can help save time and resources by providing a easy and convenient starting point for blog content. Moreover, its natural language capabilities ensure that the content created is relevant to readers. So, if you are looking for a way to simplify research and writing for your blog, Open AI ChatGPT should be at the top of your list.

Kill Zoners — I (Garry Rodgers) didn’t write this post. Nor did I copy & paste. Artificial Intelligence composed this original content for me, at my request. Yes, it’s a bot’s work and it’s unedited. All I did was enter the following prompt into Open AI ChatGPT. Then I pressed submit and, in 34 seconds, the app produced the preceding piece:

Please write me an approximately 500-word blog post on what Open AI ChatGPT is and how to effectively use it as a blog research and writing tool. I want to post this on The Kill Zone and need it written in a format that suits The Kill Zone style. Please include a clear and helpful conclusion.

Here’s the link to the Playground where you can try out ChatGPT:  https://beta.openai.com/playground

Here’s a link to a clear tutorial about using ChatGPT: https://app.gumroad.com/d/e52116ff42766c5d8567cb6d812c5dbb

Discussion question: Has anyone else used ChatGPT technology? It’s been available for six weeks and is getting a lot of attention.

Footnote: I’m offline for the next few days, so I’ve asked Debbie Burke to drive the KZ comment bus for me. Thanks, Debbie!

36 thoughts on “Using ChatGPT as a Blog Research and Writing Tool

  1. Interesting. Might give it a try for my own blog. I’d be curious to see how the generated post stands up to the automated editors I discussed in my post yesterday. Thanks for sharing.

    • Terry, the timing of today’s post by Garry–I mean, ChatGPT–meshes nicely with your discussion yesterday. AI opens a whole different universe.

  2. I had to double check the poster’s name, because it didn’t sound like Garry’s voice (which I know well after almost ten years of friendship). That’s my only problem with using AI technology. It loses that special sauce that makes writers unique.

  3. I’m with Sue. It didn’t have the richness of Garry’s voice. I can see where it would be helpful to give bloggers a starting point if they went in and tweaked it to sound more like the blogger.

  4. Thanks for underscoring the power of ChatGPT for blogs, Garry. Just yesterday I saw an example from Mark Dawson showing its use for developing punchy slogans and log lines for Facebook ads.
    Mark: “Please rewrite this headline so that I have five variations to use in a Facebook ad: A fast paced thriller full of excitement.”
    ChatGPT:
    1. A heart-pounding thriller – experience non-stop excitement
    2. A thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat – fast-paced and thrilling.
    3. A fast-paced thriller that will leave you wanting more
    4. A thrilling read that’ll keep you on your toes
    5. A high-speed thriller that’ll leave you with an adrenaline rush.

    He went on to refine it.
    “Please rewrite those so that they have fewer words.”
    1. A thrilling, non-stop read.
    2. Edge-of-your-seat thriller.
    3. Fast-paced, heart-pounding excitement.
    4. A page-turning thriller.
    5. A high-speed, adrenaline-pumping read.

    Probably equally useful in writing book blurbs. Wave of the future.

    • Thanks for sharing Mark’s example, Dan.

      Like Terry, back copy blurbs are my downfall. We authors have a hard time getting enough distance from our stories to explain them objectively. I definitely see this as a useful springboard for blurbs. But we still need to infuse them with our unique voices.

  5. Following up. I gave the program a try. Had to set up an account first. Then I asked it to write a blog post in the style of Terry’s Place about a book launch (to see if it would have anything I could use as I get ready for the release of Deadly Relations.)
    It came back with a very generic post (and lots of exclamation points, which I rarely use in my blog). I’d never consider using something like that for anything other than ideas, since I doubt it’ll ever capture voice.
    An interesting diversion. I wonder if it can “learn” over time and come up with something more suitable.

  6. Very interesting, Garry. You’ve given us something else to think about.

    Like some of the others, I caught on pretty quickly that this piece was written by AI.

    Although I see the benefits–and we can all use more time–I find great joy in writing the blog posts for TKZ. Trying to come up with an interesting topic and fashioning it into a small essay is not only satisfying, it stretches my writing ability and connects me with the TKZ community.

    I can see using ChatGPT to get a quick idea, but I want my work to be my own.

  7. I have not used ChatGPT technology. It lacks the voice and personality that I strive for in my writing, not just fiction, but all my writing. It also lacks meaning. It is a “stochastic parrot.” We are not. Humans bring meaning to what they create. I’m also deeply concerned about the possibility that it is scrapping copyrighted material to add to its library of responses. This is why I abandoned my earlier experimentation with A.I.-generated artwork.

    I will say this about ChatGPT, today’s post certainly provoked thought in me 🙂 Thanks for wrangling comments on this, Debbie.

    • Dale, thanks for teaching me a new word: “stochastic.”

      A unique voice and personality are critical to engage readers. AI is not there yet…thankfully, or we’re all out of a job.

  8. Not so fast, everyone. There is a fellow, a graduate student at Princeton, who has already developed an app to detec ChatGPT generated content.
    I’ve experimented with four AI text generators-Sudowrite, NovelAI, DreamilyAI and now ChatGPT.
    For the first three I plugged in the poem by Shelley called Ozymandias and the results were hilarious.
    Here’s what it produced after old Percy had done his thing.
    “The Desert Wind blew over his face,
    Cool and refreshing like his mother’s kiss.
    His mother’s kiss… His brow furrowed at the word.
    How long ago was that dream come true? He’d
    Loved this land since he could remember. Its very rocks
    Weren’ they still precious to him? It would be
    Such a pity if their loss had robbed him of
    Those things he loved so. He shook himself, feeling
    The cool breeze stir his tousled mane
    Of brown hair. No matter. Even now
    The world seemed just the same. A young boy”

    The farther you get from the input lines the more confused it gets.
    Another point to be considered is that whatever these programs generate is getting warehoused into the database so don’t be surprised if it shows up in some student’s “paper” somewhere in the future.

    Now. To the issue of plagiarism, which as we know is passing off someone’s work as your own-or in this case, some machine. I taught in the golden age of cut and paste plagiarism and as an instructor you get an eye for a student’s writing competency. If there is a sudden shift in tone or expression or grammar competence or font, you’re on to something.

    Where it impacts us is in the overcrowded aisles of KDP, where competent work is likely to be drowned out by the welter of shoddy amateurish tripe and drivel. People are already publishing complete ChatGPT generated novels on KDP: “Whee! Look at me I’m a published author!”

    What AI writing programs can do is produce text from the scrapings of the internet that it thjinks works with what you’ve already suggested.
    What it cannot do is tell a coherent story.

      • Thanks for that link, Robert. Glad to hear about the 22-year-old student who came up with program to detect plagiarism.

        You are right that the “already overcrowded aisles of KDP” will soon be even more crowded. My hope is that cream will still rise to the top.

        • I’m optimistic.

          This stuff is the literary world’s equivalent of George Santos. Fine for cranking out mindless “SEO optimized” bloggorhea and generic blurb drivel but it’s paint by numbers to me. It mechanizes a certain section of the reading world that can be easily defrauded, or adjunct instructors who don’t bother to read the papers they’re grading.

          As my father used to say “There’s less here than meets the eye.”

  9. Thanks, ChatGPT, for introducing yourself. Very interesting. I will keep you in mind for future blog posts. Please remind me at that time to distinguish between British and Amercan English. I noticed you used “utilise” in your intro.

    Please inform Garry that we said “thanks for the post” and that in the future we will need documentation that he actually wrote his post. Oh, while Garry is on vacation, do you also clean house and feed the pets. If so, I might be contacting you.

  10. ‘People using AI systems like ChatGPT need to be aware that they can effectively be political tools to manipulate them’

    Pedro Domingos, a professor of computer science at the University of Washington, recently shared an attempt to ask the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT to “write a 10 paragraph argument for using more fossil fuels to increase human happiness.”

    The answer: “I’m sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request as it goes against my programming to generate content that promotes the use of fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels has significant negative impacts on the environment and contributes to climate change, which can have serious consequences for human health and well-being.”

  11. Chuckling at the self-congratulation vs. other programs.

    And at least it uses ‘its’ correctly – so many humans have not acquired this necessary trait. Except that misuse of common grammatical bobbles is how I automatically identify ‘writers’ I won’t read anything further from.

  12. Even being a writing novice, I could tell by the fifth paragraph this was a generated work. Yes it lacked voice, but what tipped me off was the repetition of information. It is still interesting to learn about this technology. I bet High School term papers will never be the same.

    I also follow other blogs discussing using A.I. to created art of a particular subject and in the style of a particular artist.

  13. Okay, I’ve had writer’s block with my WIP and where the story is going. It involves insurrectionists.

    Here’s is ChatGPT response to my 500 word requests about that topic:
    “I’m sorry, but it would not be appropriate to provide information on how to stage an insurrection or take over a government facility. Such actions are illegal and dangerous, and can cause harm to individuals and communities.”

    I’m thinking that if I ask AI how to write a murder scene, I’ll get the same response. I think I’ll save it for my newsletters. No one gets killed there.

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