Why Is The AI Bubble Trying So Hard To Harsh Your Mellow?

Sunday, 12:48pm
Reno, NV

Howdy.

Artificial Intelligence is a great tool.

It’s not a thinking, living creature with emotions, or any sense of its own existence. It has no actual brain. Or nervous system. Or real empathy, or a soul, or an actual personality, or ANY of the adorable traits humans exhibit when alive.

Well, okay, there are sociopaths amongst us who lack empathy, and regard other people as nothing more than objects to be manipulated for their own personal gain. But that’s a misfire in the brain. It’s a bug, not an intended function.

Still, AI is freaking amazing, isn’t it.

As a tool, it’s helping programmers, rocket scientists, medical researchers, business owners, and all sorts of other folks. In myriad ways.

For entrepreneurs and copywriters and consultants, it’s an awesome tool in the kit.

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But it is just a tool. Nothing more.

Sure, you can use ChatGPT as your therapist. Or as your doctor. Or, I hear, as your new girlfriend.

But you still need real humans, with real experience and training and skillsets, in the mix…

… or lots of strange, unhealthy shit will commence in your life and biz.

And I’m no longer alone in telling you this stuff.

The very people who were, a year ago, inventing new programs and shoveling out advice based on the assumption that AI really was the super cool robot version of Superman…

… are now mostly warning folks of the relentless dangers behind the “magic”.

And because a lot of dumbfuck CEOs have staked the future of their companies on AI doing all the heavy lifting of bringing home the bacon…

… we’re in an AI Bubble.

Which just means the AI tech is blowing through investor money faster than it can be printed.

With lots of exciting results that sound and look good, but aren’t even coming close to fulfilling all the promises people expected.

Like, oh, profit. Stability. Rooms full of robots doing every job humans used to do, and doing those jobs extremely well and without problem.

Reminds me of the Tech Bubble of the late 1990s.

I forget the year, but at one point nearly every Superbowl commercial was about some high-flying tech biz being the Big Next Thing.

And by the following Superbowl, they were all gone.

Cuz the bubble burst. Investors realized they weren’t getting any returns on their seed money, the stock market wasn’t seeing much in the way of profitable behavior, and the companies couldn’t show any proof of massive customer bases showering them with money.

The tech was exciting, for sure.

But eventually, Capitalism yawned, and gave the thumbs down.

(Much of that tech, humbled, worked its way back into the mix, but it took a few years.)

In the world we all live in, we love to go through the same bullshit over and over again. In cycles, maybe a generation apart. You can almost set your watch by the rapid emergence of fresh wars, recessions, fashions, social upheaval…

… and technology bubbles.

My basic rule: Anytime humans are involved in something…

… shit will hit the fan sooner or later. 

Civilization works (when it does) not because of really smart humans doing really smart things…

… but rather in spite of any humans involved.

We screw stuff up, folks..

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Humans screw up a lot, in fact. But the one thing you have to learn from all the failure is great marketing. You can shortcut that process dramatically by getting your hands on The Simple Writing System.

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AI is created by fallible humans, who almost always become entranced by their new inventions. And then proceed to over-promise and under-deliver.

Look, I love AI. I use it, frequently, as a tool. It’s helped me be more productive, it’s saved me time doing research projects, and it’s even fine for the low level grunt writing sometimes required in a campaign.

But AI ain’t my biz partner. Never will be.

It’s a tool. 

The demise of the copywriting career, due to AI’s ability to write better important ads, faster…

… never happened.

Any writer who knows how to consult with a biz, while also knowing exactly what sort of written marketing materials are needed for success…

… will never be out of work.

I’ve always suggested writers become “AI Wranglers” — by understanding the possibilities and the limits (and the complete bullshit) of the tool…

… so you can be the human making sure AI-created marketing isn’t riddled with errors and hallucinations (and, let’s be honest — lies and misinformation up the yin-yang).

And, already happening: Be the clean-up expert.

Kinda like how crime scenes get mopped up and repaired and repainted and the disgusting gore removed to another location.

Cuz AI is like a marketing serial killer…

… butchering campaigns, emails, programming, and design with an insatiable lust for chaos.

And the biz community is only slowly getting hip to the dangers.

You’ve heard of the “dead Internet theory“, no?

It’s where all social media abruptly becomes just robots sending posts and comments to each other…

… and humans are just wandering around thinking everyone’s gone bonkers all of a sudden.

And yeah, we’re almost there.

AI is writing the scripts to many streaming movies you watch. Many books you see in the bestseller lists. Many of the email campaigns that haunt your inbox. The spam filling up your voice message system. And especially the social media you consume.

It’s like living in some dystopian sci-fi novel.

You can’t hardly trust any digital communication you receive, and it’s really testing the limits of society.

Right now, though, AI hasn’t “won”. You can still tell most of what it produces, cuz it sucks. As AI gets more skilled at fooling humans, that may change…

… but so far, I don’t see AI becoming our overlords on the horizon.

The “sucky” parts of it seem inherent in the Large Language Model fundamentals of the AI system. Turns out that rehashing what’s already been done by humans isn’t a very reliable path to excellence. (Especially the kind of excellence that leads to massive sales.)

AI’s been lucky that the creativity of humans has been sloppy and derivative for hundreds of years.

So yeah, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether some garbage movie, or email, or book, or video or whatever has been created by a AI or a burned-out, compromised human…

… but that’s on the burned-0ut humans.

What sucks, sucks.

And AI is producing a whole lot of suck…

… because that’s what it’s been feeding on to get where it’s at.

It can’t think.

It doesn’t care about you, or anyone else, or anything else.

It’s a smarter tool.

And humans haven’t quite figured out yet how to harness the possibility of that tool.

So there’s a lot of fumbling around by C-Suite creatures trying to fit this tool into every crevice in their businesses.

For copywriters and entrepreneurs, it’s all much more simple.

Use all your tools, and learn the limits and possibilities. Hone your ability to think critically about the problems and solutions that all biz suffer from…

… and become an expert in cleaning up the messes created by botched AI dependence.

No, you don’t need to learn how to program…

… but knowing how bad programming can be a culprit in declining sales online will go a long way.

And remember:

All High-End Copy And Sales-Producing Campaigns
Will Forever Be Brainstormed And Created By Humans. 

Smart, skilled and hip copywriters will never be obsolete.

Everyone else will discover this soon enough, as the AI Bubble bursts and blows chunks of stinking debris all over the joint.

And Rule #1 is always this: Find experts you can trust to give you the truth. Follow them, not the influencers with their heads up their ass…

… cuz the Big Chaos is just around the corner.

Okay, rant over.

Carry on.

And stay frosty,

John

P.S. If you haven’t read all my books and stuff yet, now’s the time. Your career is at stake.

You can find most of my products right here on the blog.

And be sure you’re all signed up for my email newsletter. You can sign up here on the blog, too.

Finally, be sure to check out my new podcast “Psych Insights For Modern Marketers, the 3G edition“, which is based on 3 generations (each 20 years apart) of successful marketer/copywriters going deep into the subjects affecting everyone’s bottom line. Go to www.pi4mm.com for more info, or just find the show on your favorite podcast provider. (We were in the top 10 on Apple Business Podcasts last month…)

Okay, now go do something positive for your career. Take a step toward success and happiness. Even a small step counts…