How AI Has Affected My Work So Far as a Multi-Platform Writer
Would you like to know how it can affect yours?
Despite being a freelance writer since 2006, I can’t help but be concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on my line of work.
Are we already living at a time when we need to compete with AI for a living? How many writers will be displaced with the advent of this new technology?
While some people can have a more optimistic outlook about this, I think it will do us no harm to be cautious while doing our best to secure our jobs.
Years ago, I’ve always thought that the arts would be the last thing computers can ever take away from us. But look at the proliferation of AI images today and see how AIs can generate in minutes what we human beings need to finish in hours.
We also used to identify a person by one’s unique voice. Now, anyone can be cloned and AI can easily steal your voice and scam your relatives and friends using it. Have you also seen YouTube videos using the voices of well-known singers to generate a song they never even sang? Even Amazon’s Alexa will soon be mimicking the voice of your departed relatives.
The Overall Effect on Freelance Jobs
Bloomberry’s analysis of data from Upwork revealed that among the jobs with the biggest decline from November 1, 2022, to February 14, 2024, writing jobs had the worst decrease at 33%. The other two jobs that declined the most were translation and customer service jobs at 19% and 16% respectively.
Considering that ChatGPT was launched on November 30, 2022, it doesn’t seem to be a mere coincidence that the drastic declines in the three jobs mentioned coincided with its release.
Writing jobs seem to have suffered the most, a job we all thought could only be performed well by a human being.
My Various Jobs as a Writer After the Launch of AI
After resigning from the Corporate world and working full-time as a writer, I took on various roles to earn a living from my passion.
It took me years to realize that writing is more than dreaming of becoming a best-selling author. Writing has several branches and platforms that can take us in directions we never thought we could go.
Here are just some of the different writing jobs I took on since I decided to go full-time in this career:
1. Blogger
I have been blogging for almost two decades now, and I have experienced many ups and downs in this type of writing.
I began blogging using the free blogs on Blogger.com and WordPress.com before I learned how to put up my own website.
SEO used to be easy then and I easily ranked for many keywords. As a result, I was able to make this my main source of income through the ads displayed on my blog.
Nowadays, it’s not easy to beat the bigger players when it comes to SEO. They can hire experts who specialize in making keywords rank. And they pay freelance writers for long pillar articles that would rank well in search engines like Google.
With the advent of AI, this became even more difficult. While we initially thought that AI-generated content would not make a big difference in this field, it soon becomes evident that it does.
It’s now very easy to create more posts using AI-generated content. And Google isn’t banning sites with this type of content. It merely limits the use of AI by discouraging SPAM-like behavior and sites that add no value to its readers.
Here is what Google says in its FAQ portion about AI-generated content:
“Appropriate use of AI or automation is not against our guidelines. This means that it is not used to generate content primarily to manipulate search rankings, which is against our spam policies.”
2. Freelance Writer
Since my blog earnings declined, I looked for other means to sustain my freelance career. One of the ways I found was to submit articles to various websites that are ready to pay for them.
Upwork was very helpful in introducing me to potential clients who can pay me per article of writing. I also looked for other websites and wrote articles on various topics including Business, Relationships, Personality and Spirituality.
These days, I still see many clients who are willing to pay for website content. But I cannot deny the impact of AI even in this area.
Some websites accepting posts are affected by the influx of articles being sent their way, and many seem to have been AI-generated.
As a result, some of these websites have either stopped or paused accepting content since they cannot yet filter those that actually come from human writers.
The Verge reported that AI-generated fiction is flooding literary magazines. Meanwhile, Fox Business wrote that a Sci-fi fiction magazine won’t accept submissions after surge of bot-written stories.
I currently experienced a pause in one of the websites I used to submit to. Although it didn’t mention anything about AI-generated content, it is quite possible that AI also had an impact on another lost opportunity for human writers.
3. Medium Writer
Medium is one of the platforms that has helped many writers who need an avenue for their work. Among its strengths are:
Simplicity when it comes to publishing
Ease of payment
Good SEO
A Thriving Community
I wrote on Medium since 2019 and I am happy to say that despite being on some writing breaks from time to time, my earnings here increased despite the onset of AI writing.
Just this year, Medium has not allowed AI-generated content to be put behind the Paywall. This means that although people can continue to write with AI assistance, they cannot use this content if they want to earn through Medium’s Partner Program. They also cannot expect such stories to be considered for Medium Boosting.
Here is what Medium said about AI-generated content:
“Beginning May 1, 2024, stories with AI-generated writing (disclosed as such or not) are not allowed to be paywalled as part of our Partner Program.”
“Medium is not a place for fully AI-generated stories, and 100% AI-generated stories will not be eligible for distribution beyond the writer’s personal network.”
4. Substack Writer
Another platform that has shown potential in earnings despite the proliferation of AI content is Substack.
Substack has a good community that flourishes through authentic engagement among writers. Articles generated through artificial intelligence would immediately be out of place and will not gather as much attention as posts written by human writers.
I realized that subscribers on Substack appreciate your uniqueness and your personal perspective, things that cannot be found in AI-generated posts.
My conclusion is that I can grow my following here and continue to write for the kind of people who can appreciate my uniqueness and vulnerabilities.
In an article by Hamish McKenzie on Substack, there is one thing that AI can never replace: “human-to-human relationships.”
5. Book Reviewer and Beta Reader
I think that even if more and more people use AI-generated writing, they will still need the services of human book reviewers and beta readers.
As an author myself, I want to know how people feel after reading my book. I would like to discover the things they disliked as well as the things they loved. After all, it is human beings who will eventually purchase my books, not AIs.
We will always need that human connection. To know that someone else felt what we felt. That someone was inspired after reading what we wrote.
Of course, AIs can partially work as editors just like Grammarly, a tool I also use to check my articles. But checking one’s grammar and spelling isn’t enough to receive the kind of feedback we need from human editors and reviewers.
We need another mind, just like ours, to tell us what we did right, and how we can still improve as writers.
Based on my experience, people still hire the services of book reviewers and beta readers even with the availability of artificial intelligence.
6. Book Author
Just three months after the launch of ChatGPT, Amazon was flooded with books generated from AI. According to a report from Reuters in February 2023, over 200 e-books have listed ChatGPT as author/co-author.
As a way to mitigate this, Amazon has required its KDP book publishers to disclose AI-generated content. The Guardian also reported that Amazon has limited the publication of books to only three per day.
Amazon’s Content Guidelines states:
“We require you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP. AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork. You are not required to disclose AI-assisted content.”
Perhaps as a result of this quick intervention, my book sales on Amazon have not been affected. I would also like to believe that there is more to book publishing than generating some pages from ChatGPT. This also requires credibility on the part of the author and that distinct relationship between the author and one’s readers.
Final Thoughts
Having worn many hats as a writer, I have experienced the effect of AI-generated content in various ways.
As a blogger and freelance content writer, I felt how artificial intelligence can displace many from their jobs and make it more difficult to compete for their livelihood.
On the other hand, I have also realized that there are some types of writing that can still withstand the proliferation of this type of technology.
Writers are not mere machines that can churn out endless content for search engines and social media channels.
We are, first of all, human beings endowed with a heart and soul. As such, our works are spiritual bridges connecting us to our readers and our readers to us. We are all together in this journey of self-discovery, beauty and truth that no artificial intelligence can ever take away from us.
Very comprehensive. Thanks sharing for your insights and experiences. I'm a long-time blogger not exploring the idea of being part of substack.