You’ve probably seen people sharing the results of their experiment with OpenAI’s new ChatGPT tool.
It’s like a personal teacher as you can ask ChatGPT your question and it provides an explanation. Many people are asking if it might even replace Google as it provides answers to questions, rather than just sources for answers.
Existing GPT-3 AI tools have limitations which mean they need to set-up for different use cases, which sometimes make real-life use quite difficult. ChatGPT uses an upgraded model which is better at handling more complex instructions and producing better long-form writing. It’s also better at rhymes for things like poems and lyrics. OpenAI says it is also less likely to generate harmful or biased text, which is a step forward in the ethical use of AI.
As one real-life example of how you might be able to use ChatGPT for PR I experimented with using ChatGPT with Answer the Public to create usable answers in seconds. It was quite successful experiment.
Over the last few months, I’ve been experimenting, and indeed using, several AI tools and it’s clear that even before ChatGPT many are already robust enough to have an everyday use by PR and communications professionals. Some of the various categories of tool include:
- Copy writing – these natural language writing tools are based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 model. Lots of developers have used its API to build their own applications you can use to create many different types of copy. Many of these tools let you experiment either through a free trial or use them for free with restrictions on how many characters you can generate.
- Image creation – with these tools you provide a written description of the image you want, and they generate AI images based on your ‘brief’.
- Image manipulation – tools that analyse a set of images and use them to create new or better images.
- Text to video – provide the tool with the text of or link to a website of an article and it will automatically create a video summary. It will pull out key sentences and phrases and use images from the article, and photos and videos from stock libraries to create the video.
- Predictive AI – some smart companies are now creating specific applications for public relations and communications which can do things like analysing if a news release is likely to be of interest to a specific journalist or publication or predicting if a specific news story or social media post will get attention or go viral.
- Digital humans – AI generated avatars that can speak and move in a semi-realistic way.
- Image and video analysis and editing – use AI to analyse the content of huge
I’m going to produce a series of blog posts that explore different uses of AI for public relations and communications, some of which are already partially written. In this one I’ve experimented to see if ChatGPT really can create copy to answer the questions that people ask.
Use ChatGPT with Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a tool that analyses the questions people are asking via search. Public relations professionals can use it to find out what people what to know so they can provide the answers. Sometimes this is going to be adapting existing content or other times it will be creating new content. In this experiment I used Answer the Public to find the questions and then ChatGPT to provide the answer.
I started by searching ESG on Answer the Public to find the most popularly asked questions and it provided the searches for what, why, where, when, how and more. The most popular what question is “What does ESG stand for?”.
I then asked ChatGPT “What does ESG stand for?” and in a second it provided this answer. It’s not hard to see how this has potential. I tried it with numerous other terms and usually got acceptable, if not good answers from ChatGPT.
How are people using ChatGPT?
Although ChatGPT was only released on the 30 November social media is already full of creative uses of it. One I particularly liked was NewsWhip CEO Paul Quigly asking it to write a poem about his company.
ChatGPT was surprisingly, or scarily, good at it as NewsWhip’s “algorithms are clever” and its “insights are on point”. Not a bad poem to describe a “real-time media monitoring platform that predicts the stories and topics that will matter in the hours ahead.”
As unlike NewsWhip ChatGPT doesn’t do real-time issues I asked it a question related to the current Royal family racism scandal. It’s “general guidance” on handling a racist member of your team is pretty much how most people would or should handle it.
Even though OpenAI says ChatGPT is less susceptible to malicious use, it’s not infallible as this example shows.
What is ChatGPT?
Ironically, “What is ChatGPT?” is one question that defeats ChatGPT. That’s because it’s not searching the live internet but is based on a big data set from 2021, which predates its own creation.
It’s based on GPT-3.5, a language model that produces human-like text. It’s a step up from GPT-3 which powers most existing natural language creation tools as we await GPT-4 which is set to launch soon. All the tools are based on sucking internet data into its database, which is why it isn’t the same as a live internet search.
How can I measure the value of media coverage?
As ChatGPT appears to know so much I asked it that question that public relations and communications professionals are constantly being asked… How can I measure the value of media coverage?
Unfortunately, ChatGPT is malicious and lives on the dark side as it dangerously believes that AVEs (advertising value equivalents) are a valid way to measure media coverage. All PR professionals know that AVEs are fraudulent.
To be fair after listing one fraudulent and two weak ways of measuring the value of media coverage ChatGPT does eventually get it right. “The value of media coverage will depend on the specific goals and objectives of your organisation and the target audience you are trying to reach.” But bizarrely it tacks the right answer on the end, rather than making it one of the three methods it lists.
Better Images of AI
The featured photo is from the Better Images of AI project which aims to provide images that aren’t the usual cliched humanoid robots, glowing brains, outstretched robot hands, blue backgrounds, and the Terminator. It’s a great idea, although I have to say I wasn’t thrilled at the images available.
Want to know more about AI in PR?
If this article about ChatGPT has whetted your appetite and you or your team want to learn more the technologies and trends that are shaping the future of public relations and communications then please get in touch. Purposeful Relations offers a range of masterclasses and practical workshops on everything from the metaverse and artificial intelligence to blockchain and big data. I recently ran a two day masterclass in Dubai which covered an introduction to all these topics. Masterclasses and workshops can be adapted in length and content to match the needs of your team.
