AI can’t write your news – because it hasn’t happened yet

There’s no denying that AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Jasper and Gemini are shaking up how businesses think about content creation.  

It’s hard not to be impressed. It’s tempting. And in some cases, it’s useful. 

But there is a fundamental shortcoming to the technology that simply can’t be overcome, regardless of how hard you might try to save a few hours or a few dollars by not using a professional storyteller. 

AI can’t write about something that’s just happened or break a story. Why? Because news, by definition, is new and AI only knows about history. 

AI is powered by what’s already happened. It’s based on existing data only so it can’t generate “new facts”, although somewhat frighteningly, it can happily make them up. 

At Pitch, we have always taken a journalist’s approach to PR. This means interviewing our clients, doing our research, digging deeper and chasing the news angle that is going to produce a headline, a great website story, a video topic or an engaging social post. 

Some of the best stories we’ve uncovered for clients have come from seemingly random conversations or obscure questions that only a journalist thinks to ask.  

For example, there was the property developer building little tunnels, complete with skylights, so an endangered frog species could safely cross a new road. Or the infrastructure client that lowered a dinghy into the top of a water tower so its team could fix the tower walls without draining the water. 

ChatGPT can’t do that. It doesn’t ask questions, make phone calls or send emails. It doesn’t have the news judgement that comes from decades of real media industry experience. It doesn’t understand the news cycle. 

Anyone paying attention will see a growing sameness creeping into digital content. In the crowded content space, do your potential customers want to know what your business is doing differently, smarter, faster? Or do they just want you to sound like everyone else? 

Does the media want to know something new, relevant, colourful, inspiring? Or are journalists looking for a robotic rehash that might not even be true? 

That’s why, at Pitch, we will continue to do PR and storytelling the old-fashioned way. We will ask questions. We will make phone calls. We will think outside the machine. And occasionally, we will delete half of a perfectly good paragraph because it makes the story better. 

Want to speak to a human that understands your PR and storytelling needs? Reach out here.

Note: this article was written and spellchecked by a human.