How will ChatGPT change marketing forever? We asked ChatGPT

Since the introduction of its research preview in November 2022, ChatGPT has inspired awe and fear throughout society. We sat down with the revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to zoom in and better understand its potential impact on the marketing world. The following chat has been edited for length and flow. (Despite the edit, the conversation is wordy with some loose ideas and redundancy. That’s the nature of this new beast.)

Thanks for making yourself available to talk. We’ve been getting a lot of error messages lately when trying to connect with you.

You’re welcome. I apologize for any inconvenience caused by error messages you may have encountered. As a machine learning model, I rely on a large amount of computational resources to function. Sometimes, due to high demand or other factors, these resources may become temporarily unavailable or overloaded, which can lead to decreased performance or temporary unavailability of the model.

No worries!

I’m glad to hear that.


Briefly introduce yourself to our audience of marketing professionals.

I am an advanced AI language model known as GPT-3, developed by OpenAI. I am able to understand and generate human-like text based on the data and context provided to me.

My capabilities include being able to generate high-quality, human-like text for a wide range of marketing materials such as product descriptions, blog posts, social media posts, and email campaigns. I can also be fine-tuned to specific tasks or domains and can generate personalized content such as personalized emails or product recommendations. Additionally, I can be used to analyze large amounts of customer data and provide insights into customer sentiment and preferences.

I am designed to be a tool that can help marketing professionals to save time and resources, automate certain tasks and improve the performance of their campaigns, but still, it’s important to use GPT-like models in conjunction with human oversight, editing, and validation to ensure accurate and appropriate results.

Your capabilities are astonishing. How will you change marketing?

GPT-like models like me have the potential to change marketing in several ways:

1. Content creation: I can generate high-quality, human-like text for a wide range of marketing materials, such as product descriptions, blog posts, social media posts, and email campaigns, which can save time and resources compared to manual content creation.
2. Personalization: I can be trained on customer data to generate personalized content, such as personalized emails or product recommendations, which can improve the customer experience and increase conversions.
3. Automation: I can be integrated into marketing automation systems to generate content and respond to customer queries, which can save time and resources.
4. Insights: I can be used to analyze large amounts of customer data, such as social media posts or customer reviews, to gain insights into customer sentiment and preferences, which can inform marketing strategy.
5. Optimization: I can be used to help optimize marketing campaigns by testing different headlines, ad copy, and other elements to see which are most effective, which can improve the ROI of marketing efforts.

However, it’s important to consider the ethical implications of using GPT-like models in marketing, such as the potential for misuse of customer data, and the need for transparency and explainability in decision-making.

‍Should we be scared of you?

As a language model, I do not have the ability to feel emotions or intentions, so it would not be accurate to say that you should be “scared” of me. However, it is important to be aware of the potential uses and misuses of language models like mine, and to consider the ethical implications of their deployment in various contexts.

It’s also important to understand that I can only provide information and perform tasks based on the data and context provided to me.

That means you are incapable of generating original thoughts, right?‍

Yes, that’s correct. I don’t have the ability to generate truly original thoughts or ideas, but rather, I respond to prompts by recombining and adjusting the information I was trained on to produce a response that is relevant to the input I receive.

We’ve noticed much of the content you create sounds generic, and a lot of it is inaccurate. How do you explain this?‍

As a language model, GPT-3 generates text based on patterns it has learned from the training data it was exposed to, and it’s designed to continue a given text or complete a given task. However, the text generated may not always be entirely accurate, relevant or appropriate, particularly if the model is not fine-tuned to a specific task or domain, or if the input text is not clear or specific enough. Additionally, GPT-3, like other GPT models, is not capable of understanding the context or nuances of the language, so it may produce text that is not entirely coherent or accurate. It’s important to note that the output generated by GPT-3, like any other AI model, is only as good as the data it was trained on.

To generate more accurate and relevant text, it’s important to fine-tune the model on specific tasks or domains and to provide clear and specific input text. Additionally, it’s important to validate and verify the output text generated by GPT-3 before using it in any context, especially when it’s used for customer engagement or decision making.

We believe in creating marketing content that’s for people, by people. What’s your reaction to that?‍

I understand that creating marketing content that is for people, by people, is an important principle in the field of marketing. This approach aligns well with the idea of providing a personalized and human experience for customers. As an AI language model, my capabilities are primarily focused on understanding and generating text, which can assist in the content creation process by providing scriptwriting, storyboarding, and other textual elements of the production process. However, it’s important to note that I am not a human, and while I can produce high-quality, human-like text, I lack the ability to understand the context, the nuances of human language and the overall meaning of the text, and also lack the ability to understand the customers’ needs, preferences and behavior. Therefore, it’s important to use GPT-like models in conjunction with human oversight, editing, and validation to ensure that the content is accurate and appropriate for the audience. In this way, GPT-like models can be a valuable tool to assist human marketers in creating more engaging and personalized content for their customers.

So humanity still matters.

Yes, humanity still matters in the field of marketing and in general. The human touch, creativity, and understanding of the context, the nuances of human language and the overall meaning of the text and the customers’ needs, preferences and behavior, are all important aspects that cannot be replicated by AI models like me. GPT-like models are a tool to assist and enhance the work of human marketers, but they cannot replace the human touch, creativity and understanding of the customer.

GPT-like models are a tool to assist and enhance the work of human marketers, but they cannot replace the human touch, creativity and understanding of the customer.

That’s a relief.

I’m glad to hear that. It’s important to understand that GPT-like models like me are powerful tools, but they should be used in a responsible and ethical manner, and in conjunction with human expertise and decision-making. As AI technology continues to evolve, it’s important for developers and users to consider the ethical implications of their work and to ensure that AI systems are being used in ways that are beneficial to society and that are aligned with ethical principles.

Speaking of that evolution, what does the future look like for ChatGPT and rivals like Google’s Bard?

The future of GPT-like models is likely to involve continued improvements in their performance and capabilities. This may include the development of larger and more powerful models, as well as the incorporation of new techniques such as transfer learning and few-shot learning. Additionally, there may be increasing efforts to make these models more explainable and transparent in their decision-making processes.

It’s also likely that GPT-like models will be used in an increasingly wide range of applications, from natural language generation to language translation, from chatbots to virtual assistants, from question answering to language summarization. And with the rise of edge devices and the 5G networks, it’s also possible that GPT-like models will be deployed at the edge, closer to the end-user, which can improve the overall performance and user experience.

However, it’s also important to consider the ethical implications of the increasing use of language models like GPT and the potential impact on society. There are concerns about the potential misuse of these models, such as the generation of deepfake text, and the impact on jobs that involve writing or language-based tasks.

There’s so much more to come. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us.

You’re welcome. I’m glad I could assist you. If you have any other questions or need any further information, feel free to ask.

Want to chat about ChatGPT and other trends at the intersection of marketing and technology? Reach out to us!

This article was published before January 2024 and does not reflect the consolidation of Performance Marketing, Vector Haus, and Blue Traffic into Anthologic.