Blog posts Archives - Troy Harrison

AI is one hell of a tool. I use it a lot myself. But I’ve also talked a lot about avoiding Chat Crap in your work, because AI can sound inauthentic, and that’s where “Good AI” becomes “AI Gone Wrong.” As Amazon stated: “Roughly 57% of all web-based text has been AI generated or translated through an AI algorithm, according to a separate study from a team of Amazon Web Services researchers published in June.” I’m not sure I completely buy that 57% number – it seems like an awfully high number, considering how short a time AI has been in play – but even if the number is half that, it’s huge.

I also think that AI can be handy for prospect research, as well as content generation. But you have to be VERY careful. The linked article below is one great example of AI gone wrong. Here’s the opening paragraph:

Tony’s KC: The Heart of Kansas City’s Barbecue Scene

“Tony’s Kansas City has a rich history dating back several decades in Kansas City. Tony, a BBQ aficionado with a love for crafting the ideal smoked meats, opened the restaurant and soon won over many devoted patrons. The early going was modest, with a limited menu that concentrated on honing the fundamentals. Tony’s KC grew in popularity and offers throughout time, earning a slot on the local and tourist calendar that is not to be missed.”

Sounds like a great place to eat, right? There’s only one problem. Tony’s Kansas City is NOT a restaurant. It’s a local news blog that keeps people up to date on what’s really happening in my fair city, and only every now and then does he even talk about barbecue.

Now, think about this. This piece of terrible, lazy “writing” is on the Washington Post Magazine‘s website. That’s a national outlet. With one quick fact-check – a visit to Tony’s Kansas City blog – whoever prompted the AI could have figured out that the article was junk. Nobody did.

This happens because people think that AI is magic and infallible. They’re using AI the wrong way because they don’t understand it, and they don’t know how to treat it. You should treat AI like the best intern you’ve ever had: It has a higher IQ than you, it has 20 Ph.D’s, and it has absolutely no street smarts whatsoever. My favorite platform at the moment is Claude; I did a back to back video comparison on Claude vs. ChatGPT and put it on YouTube to explain why.

The “street smarts” have to come from you. Your job is to guide AI, edit it, and back-check it. Apparently, the Washington Post doesn’t understand that. Here’s what happened. Someone – most likely a low-paid person and possibly an actual intern – was assigned to write an article. I haven’t a clue what platform they used, or how they prompted it, but I do know that they ended up with an article that was a complete fabrication with precious little relationship to the truth. And, once they had it, they didn’t even bother clicking through to Tony’s website (his name really is Tony Botello – that’s one thing that the article got right) in order to verify that they were in the same solar system as the truth. As of this writing, the article has been up for a week with no changes or corrections.

So, how should you use AI platforms? Here are a few of the techniques that I use:

Prompts should be several sentences in length and be fully explanatory; one-sentence prompts usually get you junk for results. What we call “AI” is also known as large language models, meaning that the real feature is the platform’s ability to understand sentences, paragraphs, and context. The more you put in your prompt, the better your results will be, even if you’re doing prospect research.
Don’t be afraid to ask your AI platform to try again. Every popular platform has a button to do so, but I recommend suggesting your own refinements. For instance, often I’ll say something like, “That wasn’t bad, but can you try again without the buzzwords, using plainer language?”
In that vein, you should always specify a tone or style in which you want the result, as well as a length (when you’re going for a written document). If you don’t specify word count, AI tends to go very long.
If your work depends on the accuracy of AI’s conclusions, take a quick moment to fact-check at least the biggest issues in the result.
Once you have something you’re happy with (again, for a written document), you should always refine it a bit, to add your own language and your own touches to it. I created a video on how I use AI to create written work. For the record, I did NOT use AI in this one.

Now, here’s what is really scary. The Post article now becomes part of the “knowledge base” on the Internet, and will at some point be referred to as source material for other articles, whether human-written or AI-written. Expect the amount of Chat Crap to expand exponentially. This, friends, is why AI will not replace people in too many meaningful roles. If you use AI platforms (and to be clear, I recommend that you use them and use them well), make sure to remember that YOU are the street smarts. Keep that in mind, and you will do fine, and you will avoid “AI Gone Wrong.”

Hey there, savvy sales champs! Ever thought about having a secret weapon that boosts your sales game? Enter ChatGPT, your new best buddy in the sales world. It’s like having a Jedi master of conversation on your side, helping you charm clients, answer tricky questions, and close deals faster than you can say “commission.” Whether you’re a seasoned sales pro or just dipping your toes, this AI wizard is about to revolutionize how you hustle. Buckle up and get ready to unlock the magic of ChatGPT for your sales hustle!

Now, did that sound like me, Troy Harrison, the Sales Navigator? Hell, no, it didn’t! And if you use AI applications (whether ChatGPT or others) without any editing, it won’t sound like YOU either. I purposely asked ChatGPT to write an intro for this article knowing that it would come up with something that was so transparently NOT me as to (hopefully) get your attention. What we’re going to be talking about today is how to easily spot AI in blog posts, articles, and other written documentation – which, hopefully, will show you how to use AI correctly.

At current count, there are over 5,000 Generative AI applications competing for a growing AI user base. “Generative AI” is the proper term for applications that accept a prompt from you and then generate some sort of written document as an output. AI can write blog posts, articles, books, and even movie scripts (which is a big reason that the screen writers have been on strike – seems self-defeating to me, but I digress), and it’s easy to get started. It can do this well or it can do it badly. I hope we can agree that the opening paragraph of this article was “doing it badly,” but I bet you’ve seen a ton of posts on social media that looked pretty much like that. AI is in its infancy, but at the moment, it has a number of verbal “tics” that are dead giveaways. Let’s look at three of those now.

Over-the-top language: Don’t get me wrong, I like enthusiasm. I once had a client describe me as a “human exclamation point!” But too much AI output can sound like the person is on the biggest sugar high ever. My opening paragraph is an example. “Hey there, savvy sales warriors” is a phrase unlikely to ever be typed by human fingers. When you see a post that is virtually screaming at you, it’s probably AI.Your Hack: I asked ChatGPT to use “casual language” in my prompt for the intro, and that was the result. If you don’t specify your wording, you’ll get an abundance of business buzzwords and language that sounds like a term paper for an MBA program. If neither one of those extremes mirrors how you speak and write – and they probably don’t – you need to be specific in the language you want for an output. “Don’t use buzzwords” is one of my favorite prompts, and sometimes I’ll paste in a couple of paragraphs of my own work as a writing sample and tell ChatGPT to mirror my verbal cadence. Until you get really good at your initial prompts, don’t accept the first result you get.
Giveaway words and phrases: There are certain phrases that are dead giveaways. “Say goodbye to X and say hello to Y” is a frequent one. Or, “I hope this email finds you well.” (That one sticks in my craw a bit, because I used to open a lot of emails with, “I hope you are doing well.” AI took that one away from me.) Words like “unleash,” “revolutionize,” and “unlock” are also common tics that give away a written product as AI-generated.Your Hack: Sometimes, it’s enough to just accept a result with some buzzwords in it, and then rephrase it yourself into more direct and plain lingo. Watch LinkedIn and Facebook ads, and you’ll see a ton of AI generated ads. Read them and analyze them, and you’ll see other common verbal tics. Then avoid them.
Intros and closes: ChatGPT uses very familiar patterns of introductions and closes to its output. Again – you probably already know what they are. Avoid these, especially the intro. The first paragraph or even sentence tells the reader if they want to continue, and if your first paragraph sounds AI, many readers will bail out. Hmmmm….I’m hoping that most of you knew what I was doing and made it past that crappy first paragraph!Your Hack: Always write your own opening and closing to a written document. ChatGPT is actually pretty good at writing the body of an article with bullet points and analysis, but is weaker at getting into the article. Your solution is to use your own ideas and thoughts to open your posts, blogs, etc., and then allow ChatGPT to do some of the heavy lifting in the middle. Remember – make sure that the language flows and sounds like you. If you come off as inauthentic, people won’t read you, and they won’t buy from you.

The bottom line is this: Anytime you want to use a Generative AI tool to make your communications more efficient – and you should – don’t look at it as the complete solution. As my friend Chase Aucoin likes to say, “ChatGPT is the best intern you ever had. It’s smart, it has 20 PhD’s, and it has no street smarts whatsoever.” The first paragraph of this article was an example of the lack of street smarts of ChatGPT. It’s also the only piece of this article written with ChatGPT – but when I asked ChatGPT to write an article explaining how to easily spot AI in written documents, something happened that has not happened to me before.

I got a blank response. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Seriously – I learned that ChatGPT cannot explain to you what the dead giveaways of ChatGPT are and how to easily spot AI! After I stopped laughing, I wrote this article.

Generative AI is a great tool and will make you more efficient – but it won’t replace you. So don’t ask it to, and you’ll be fine.

Tag Archives: Blog posts

An Example of AI Gone Wrong