Is AI replacing content creators? This is something I been thinking about since last year. I have noticed with the people I know and even with myself sometimes that the AI answers in search results are taken at face value. Or we will ask an AI a question instead of searching at all.
AI instead of search?
I might be a little more immune to this because I have seen AI be flat out wrong so many times. I remember a user at work argued with me about a software feature that did not exist because AI told him it was a thing. It took me more effort then I would like to admit to prove to him the AI was wrong.
AI Is Not Infallible and I’ve noticed I tend to take AI results with more caution then others around me. I like to visit websites and see the results for myself.
But websites with crap all over their pages are not helping their cause. It is nice to just be able to get an answer to your question without sifting through a bunch of other stuff. I think content creators that practice this are hurting themselves in the long run.
Traffic dropping due to AI usage
A few weeks back I seen this video and X post and it made me start to think about this even more.
The highest traffic pages on my site are tutorials and how to do stuff. So I was curious and looked. Sure enough my numbers are way down too.
Is it worth posting anymore?
The question I have to ask myself is should anyone keep building up their written content? AI sucks up written works so easy part of me is like why bother? Its cool to help people and I love getting feed back but a big reason why I write post is because I enjoy it. Maybe it fits into some kind of creative outlet for me.
Adapting to the new AI world
I been thinking about how to deal with this new world. I think the key point is that some content types are less likely to be killed by AI overviews and scraping. For example my friend at Spooky Appalachia tells and reports on spooky stories. I feel like any fan of that site is not going to go to an AI and ask them to sum up a story. They will want to hear the whole thing.
But anything that deals with news or explaining how to do something is susceptible to AI scraping and summarization.
My Idea
For myself I have been thinking about changing the structure of my site. I have this vague idea in my head that I have not fully figured out yet. Something more interactive and entertaining. An experience that visitors can’t get from asking AI. But I can’t give you a clear picture of what that is it yet.
What do you think?
Do you have any tips you can share in the comments? I think if your a content creator you might should be thinking about the same kind of thing. At least have some ideas ready in case you need it.
