AI, your website builder and content
If you’ve been listening to media reports on AI, potentially you are nervous. What future is AI creating? Whether you feel fear or excitement, AI with us, in the workings of our everyday lives.
There are complex layers and important ethics around AI. For example movie extras, actors, duped into having their bodies scanned, digitally captured, without being asked, nor offered any payment for the use of their digital replicas (ABC Science Friction). ChatGPT scrapes the internet and online digital documents, without any reference to the original source or author.
Currently, with AI there are both winners and losers.
One year after the launch of ChatGPT
Millions around the world have embraced the use OpenAI’s ChatGPT with awe-inspired glee since its launch in late 2022. In reality, many of us have been using AI for years, well before the launch. Virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant are AI. Recommendation assistants offered by, for example, Netflix and Spotify, draw from AI algorithms.
The fear and excitement many of us feel about AI, is a bit like when the internet became publicly available in the early 1990s.
Catholic schools in Australia have allowed students to use ChatGPT since it became available for public.
In 2024, Australian public schools will lift the ban on artificial intelligence to bring their classrooms in line with private and Catholic schools. (ABC News, 6 October 2023)
Good and evil in the balance
Artificial intelligence can perform human-like cognitive functions to achieve tasks, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and language understanding — all at lightning speed. It’s impressive.
Like many powerful things, both good and evil is in the balance of outcomes. AI algorithms are created by human teams of researchers and engineers. The following quote is a from ChatGPT response to my prompt that asked: how can society feel safe and confident that AI will be used for good, not evil?
Ensuring that AI is used for the benefit of society and not for harmful purposes requires a combination of ethical guidelines, responsible development practices, and regulatory measures.
Producing ethical guidelines, practices, and regulations takes time. Plus, elaborate systems and resources are required to keep them in check.
When we try to evaluate AI, experiencing fear as part the mix is probably a good thing.
Fear could help enable the resources and scrutiny necessary for these regulatory measures.
Building website and creating content with AI
When we build websites using Squarespace or WordPress, or any of the other website builders, we can now opt-in to use an inbuilt AI tool into the content generation process.
Some website builders offer to complete ‘your dream website’ using AI. Really? Will it work … I mean, properly?
The reality is that AI is still in its early days, and, we humans are guinea pigs who are helping with the testing. This testing comes with trial and experimentation.
Whether these AI tools ever get it ‘right’, as in 100% correct all the time, is an unknown right now.
In the mean time, it’s important to maintain human testing of AI website builds and generated content.
WordPress
Elementor AI plugin: Elementor Pro offers an app (a free trial is available for a short period) to generate text and edit images. The Elementor AI plugin can also generate custom CSS code for effects.
Divi AI plugin: Divi AI claims to create written content, write code and generate images to ‘create websites on the fly’. The promotional video about the Divi AI is presented by someone who looks like a stereotypical Jesus Christ. Is this video and the presenter generated by AI?
Squarespace and other website builders
At the time of writing this, Squarespace AI integration is limited to text content generation. You can enter prompts or text you’ve already written, and the AI will help you create a first draft of text content for your website.
Key aspects of AI integration for web designers
Key aspects of AI integration into website builders include: automated design assistance including user experience enhancements; content generation; and search engine optimization. This integration includes writing product descriptions, creating blog posts, or even generating entire web pages. These are content areas that I consider myself an expert as a professional web designer.
Will AI take work away from website designers and content creators? Will AI render human creativity worthless? We’ve heard other valid questions and conversations about AI that generate a lot of fear, and a lot of inequity.
Is AI a threat to my work as a web designer?
Both yes and no. In reality, the development of user-friendly website builders over recent years means that just about anyone, quite simply, can create their own website and make it live. But does every owner-built website work well? I suggest not, and that is where the services of a human professional can step in.
Professional web designers explore what technology is available for specific tasks. The approach of integrating AI into any work process can speed up workflow, with an aim to free up time for the creative process, and potentially create websites and develop relevant content for clients in less time. If AI saves time, this saving should be reflected in the pricing of professional services.
So, AI is just another tool to work with — well, that’s how I am embracing it right now. It can offer a draft that needs an input of human feel, soul.
Web design templates and AI
Cookie-cutter templates for designing websites have been around for a while now. The end result can look generic and unimpressive.
However, there could be value in a tool that, with the correct prompts, can offer user-experience design and content improvements. The AI suggestions can be adopted, or not, depending on the website purpose and what works for the site owner, and testing.
Search engine optimization
Why not test or prompt AI for keyword generation for your website? SEOs already do their research using tools like Google Analytics, Moz, and Ahrefs which use algorithms. Keywords can change over time, search queries can change. If AI can keep abreast of search trends, using AI for SEO is another tool that could offer value for SEO.
Is AI always correct?
It’s still early days and the internet lists plenty of examples where AI content, copied and used by humans, holus bolus, onto websites or in a report, has resulted in egg on the human’s face. So no, right now AI is not always correct.
My take, so far
It is prudent to be cautious with using AI. It’s easy to identify the potential of laziness and complacency —copy and pasting the AI draft as your final draft. So my view on using AI as a content generator is that it is helpful — only when human discretion is integrated into the content production. AI isn’t correct all the time.
The important part in all this is that web content is only good when it has meaning and relevancy to the website context and purpose. With the amount of AI content being speedily generated left, right, and centre, checking and editing the content before using it on your website is a must.
In relation to the ethical issues, AI will gain a lot more confidence in the broader community and across relevant industries if the content generated and scraped from existing online content is referenced and acknowledged. Could this potentially mean that users pay a fee for AI generated content, with the likes of OpenAI also paying the authors of the content they scrape?
Conclusion
If AI can save production time, and therefore free up more time for the human designer’s creativity, all power to it — with this important proviso: Don’t automatically consider AI generated content as the best or final content for your website.
Websites should be purpose built, and unique, for the business context, personality, and location. Importantly, AI doesn’t get it right all the time; we need to be aware of AI’s limitations. But as a tool for generating a first draft it’s not bad, and this includes writing product descriptions, creating blog posts, or even generating entire web pages. This can save time for content developers or designers to then integrate something unique into the website build.
AI is here, but any answers to the ethical issues are a long way from being addressed.
