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In May 2023, on an exclusive WhatsApp group of freelance creative writers, an outsourcer put up a gig calling for pitches, and at the end of his note, he wrote: “Stay away if you write with AI.”
The responses that followed were a thread of people’s surprise at how supposed creative writers dub from AI and still get paid like they tasked their brains. Eventually, the conversation moved from criticisms of indicted writers and sprang on AI itself, questioning its authenticity.
“ChatGPT is the most common tool writers use now,” an outsourcer said, “and for tech blog content or SEO writers, maybe that will work. But for creative writing, it’s a no-no. ChatGPT may be able to write well in English, but it can’t write creatively, and that is what many of these clients want.”
While other professionals around the world, both in the tech and creative sectors, are applauding the genius of AI and are afraid of its potential to take their jobs, these writers think AI is a scam.
An aside: How freelancing works
(Read this too: How Toyosi Godwin is building a booming freelance career)
For many creatives, the gig economy hangs on a chain of demand and supply —there is the client with writing needs but the creative deficiency, and there’s the creative professional looking to get paid for their creativity. Exchange happens, and usually, these transactions happen on freelance markets such as Upwork and Fiverr, with very few transactions on a personal basis. However, there is an unofficial twist to this chain that makes it a bit more complicated.
While the client remains, the creative or skilled supplier in these markets becomes an entity comprising an outsourcer and the real creatives. Usually, the outsourcers get these jobs from their clients and become clients themselves, assigning these jobs to creatives who do the brain work. While outsourcers have the entrepreneurial acumen to manage these freelance profiles, grow clientele, and negotiate pay, they are just that—businessmen without creative abilities.
Ironically, while the real ghost workers do the bulk of the work, they are mostly at the receiving end of the side effects of this structure —financially, as they only paid a fraction of the client pays for the job, and mentally, as they have to take on more than they can do just to earn more. This is one of the major influences for many in the writing niche to turn to AIs to complete their tasks, depleting their creativity and the quality of jobs they produce.
Now, it’s become tricky as these writers claim that AI has proven to be worse writers than humans.
Writers’ experiences with using AIs
There were a couple more comments from outsourcers and writers who think AI isn’t the overworked creative writer’s best friend.
“Very dumb. I experimented with it and the result was laughable. Maybe AI is great for writing resignation letters but any kind of creative writing? Nah. It’d lack depth and humor.”
–Lolu, writer
“The manual technique is even more reliable. I have used AI (Jasper) heavily because a client wanted such. It was easy to discover a pattern of writing. The AI would write the product reviews the same way, altering the specifics but still maintaining the same style. Google flags such writings as ‘Thin Descriptions’, and they will never rank.
The Nouns were the worse. It would use the name of the product in every sentence. No single adjustment. The client got tired when the work was not ranking. It was not surprising. The biggest worry is the ability of these AIs to just compile information from different sources and give you as if it is very accurate.”
–Samuel, Writer
“I know writing can get overwhelming and freelancing can be so tricky that you take on more jobs than you are supposed to. That is where AI should come in, but many writers do not know how to use it. I don’t think it’s wrong for a writer to use an AI (albeit I don’t do it myself) to prepare a piece, as long as the writer doesn’t breach any agreement, or violate any law, and the client gets their deliverable(s).”
–Yinka, Outsourcer
“These clients know about AIs before contacting humans to write for them. Many of them have zero tolerance for AI, and this is why they still patronize us. Many of them can fish out AI writing, and it is quite easy. The multiple Nouns, limited Pronouns, and superficial descriptions are all red flags to catch a culprit. Imagine if the client discovers an AI-written piece. It has the potential to ruin an outsourcer profile.”
–Tolu, Outsource
The bone of contention for them is that while AI can be helpful, it will never take the place of human writers.
On the other hand, Smith, a writer, recalled his experience with an AI tool that misjudged his work.
“There’s the issue of AI generators flagging original contents as being generated. I’ve been a victim. It wasn’t funny. I was shocked to realize the content I wrote myself is saying 90% generated. It’s really funny how these AIs that produce flawed write-ups are still used to check and confirm authenticity. Even for academic writers, ChatGPT can cook up fake references too!”
“Another side effect of this is that many who aren’t creative writers have assumed the title with the plan to leverage AIs. They enter the market, mixing with authentic writers, and that’s a big disservice to the true creatives out there.”
For other creatives (designers, creators, and more), their dealings with AIs are quite different, and their fear of AIs taking their jobs is more intense. But for writers, AIs are a necessary tool to mitigate the workload, not to replace them. Some experts, however, have argued that AI is still on the journey of getting smarter and could reach a point where it will take writing jobs.
At the moment, while a few companies have laid off some workers with the hopes of leveraging AIs, some are hiring job seekers who have a mastery of the tool.
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