Is Artificial Intelligence a THREAT to Forums?

[Shawn Gossman]

How do you feel about artificial intelligence as a whole?

It's amazing and scary all at the same time. But it can be convenient if you're time-crunched and you need automated and fast help to edit content, add copywriting, and even write full articles. Search engines claim they will penalize you for it, but AI is machine learning. That means it can learn your tone and create content exactly how you would write it. In all honesty, search engines will not be able to detect it.

For me, AI is just a tool. I love writing too much to let it take that from me.

But how about AI and forums in general? Can AI be threatening to forums? A threat to forums as a whole? A threat to forum owners in terms of competition? How do you feel about AI?

 

[AWS]

I am starting to get more into it. I used it as a test to create a few articles. I was surprised how well they came out. I am seriously thinking about starting a new forum that will be seeded with 100% AI content.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I am starting to get more into it. I used it as a test to create a few articles. I was surprised how well they came out. I am seriously thinking about starting a new forum that will be seeded with 100% AI content.

A lot of forums are doing it.

I see it on other forums all the time. The reason I know if because a user's typical posts before the AI boom was a few sentences about a subject and a question with a few noticeable typos. After AI boom, all of a sudden, really nice content-rich posts that are immaculately spelled and grammar.

 

[JoelR]

A lot of forums are doing it.

I see it on other forums all the time. The reason I know if because a user's typical posts before the AI boom was a few sentences about a subject and a question with a few noticeable typos. After AI boom, all of a sudden, really nice content-rich posts that are immaculately spelled and grammar.

I view it as a helpful supplement.

I'll be the first to honestly admit - and in not way am I ashamed at all - that I use ChatGPT to sometimes help me craft a new forum thread. The thread's idea and focus is all mine, but sometimes I'm braindead and don't want to craft the "prefacing" that comes in a new forum thread to explain and contextualize and then finally get to the point. ChatGPT just writes it all out. It does help me be more efficient.

At the same time, it's never going to be as good as, well, a human in some regards. For example, I wanted to write a forum topic about a relatively advanced concept called computational kindness (where it's unkind to put the entire burden on the other person), and it totally bombed in its content generation.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I view it as a helpful supplement.

I'll be the first to honestly admit - and in not way am I ashamed at all - that I use ChatGPT to sometimes help me craft a new forum thread. The thread's idea and focus is all mine, but sometimes I'm braindead and don't want to craft the "prefacing" that comes in a new forum thread to explain and contextualize and then finally get to the point. ChatGPT just writes it all out. It does help me be more efficient.

At the same time, it's never going to be as good as, well, a human in some regards. For example, I wanted to write a forum topic about a relatively advanced concept called computational kindness (where it's unkind to put the entire burden on the other person), and it totally bombed in its content generation.

I will admit that I've used it to help me get ideas. I would rather write the thread myself because it's my voice and I also love writing. I don't want to lose my love for writing. But I do think that it can be a good supplement for forum owners.