NEWSLETTER: AI is doing what?
If you want proof that AI still needs human oversight, this is it: AI hallucinations.
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🎓 AI 101 for small business owners:
I’ve stressed it before but if you’re using AI for any reason, you still need human oversight. While AI can be of great assistance, there are still a lot of issues and one of the biggest problems is AI hallucinations.
What are AI hallucinations?
In short, an AI hallucination is when AI produces something inaccurate.
If you want a more detailed explanation, here is the response I got when I asked Poe, one of my favorite AI tools (and no, this isn’t sponsored):
Example of an AI hallucination:
I recently encounted an AI hallucination when I was helping my mom use AI to generate content. She has a travel blog about Italy and one of the articles she wanted to publish was about famous movies that were set in Italy. So in Poe we entered the prompt: In the tone of a friendly blog writer, create a list of iconic Italy travel locations based on popular movies.
The majority of the results were exactly what we were looking for, like Under The Tuscan Sun being filmed in Tuscany and Positano, Letters To Juliette being filmed in Verona and The Godfather being filmed in Sicily. But then we got to the very last result and this is what it said:
If you saw the Italian Job, you’ll know that it actually took place in Venice and not Milan. So when it was generating this response to our prompt, AI got its wires crossed and hallucinated that The Italian Job took place in Milan.
Had my mom just copied and pasted the article directly onto her blog, she would have had inaccurate information on there. And if someone was reading her blog and saw that inaccurate information, they would then completely lose all trust in her, knowing that she provides inaccurate information.
So that’s why it’s so important to use human oversight whenever you’re using AI.
Will AI hallucinations ever go away?
Whether AI models can improve enough to completely eliminate these types of hallucinations is just one of the many things we’ll have to wait and see as the technology continues to evolve.
This recent Fortune article caught my eye, seeing the headline that tech experts are doubting it will ever go away.
Here is a snippet from the article about the current state of AI hallucinations:
But that article also states that there is optimism within the tech industry that it will improve:
Click here to read the full article.
Debbie Downer:
Not to get too heavy here, but it’s obviously pretty disheartening to think that on top of the many humans who are increasingly spreading misinformation online, we now have AI adding to it.
I often think about what that will mean for future generations, like my kids and their kids. What will they learn in life that will be completely wrong because someone put the wrong information online or because AI generated the wrong information?
For example, a recent TechCrunch article titled Are AI models doomed to always hallucinate? shows just how bad AI hallucinations can be:
So while some AI hallucinations are minor and even rather humorous, others can be a lot more serious. If the hallucinations never go away, how much damage will be done?
That being said, I’m choosing to be glass half full with Bill Gates and the other techno-optimists. I’m hoping these are simply some early-stage AI kinks that will eventually be ironed out.
In conclusion:
Always use human oversight when it comes to AI!
🛞 Test Drive
Who: Anyword
What: Copywriting
Why: I tested this one so I could help a client who is an interior designer come up with some content for her new website. One of the biggest things she struggles with is educating people on the benefits of working with an interior designer.
How it worked: I was able to sign up for a 7-day free trial (🎉) that includes their starter plan and 2500 word credits. The dashboard gave a few options to choose from including Prompt, Instagram Caption, Blog Wizard and Content Improver.
I selected the Blog Wizard and it asked the topic I wanted to write about, so I put “benefits of working with an interior designer”. It then gave me some title suggestions that showed the SEO rankings of each one. I could either pick from one of their suggestions or enter one of my own.
I picked one of theirs and then it gave an article outline with 7 suggestions of what to discuss in the article:
I was happy with the article outline so I proceeded to the intro paragraph. It then generated three different intro paragraphs to choose from that showed how they ranked related to SEO. I selected the highest-ranking one and then it took me to a page that showed each topic in the article outline where I could then enter my own paragraphs or have it generate the paragraphs for me.
For them to generate the paragraphs, I got to choose if I wanted them to be short, medium or long, and I could also add any specific topics that I wanted to be included (i.e. depending on your topic you could ask for the history of something).
Here is a look at the dashboard showing the completed article:
Verdict: Overall Anyword was very user-friendly and it was nice to have the various options to choose from, like the different titles, intro paragraphs and the length of the paragraphs.
However, as I always stress, it’s best to use content like this as a starting point that you can then revise to put your personal touch on. You don’t want to lose your personal/brand tone, but this is a great way to get started and it’s especially helpful to know what will rank higher when it comes to SEO.
🗞️ Headlines
Here are some articles you might find interesting:
20 AI Tools To Supercharge Your Business And Productivity - Forbes
Are AI Regulations on the Way? And What Will They Look Like? - Business News Daily
AI could help companies connect with customers like never before - TechRadar
⏩ In next week’s newsletter:
AI 101: The easiest way to get started using AI for your business
Test drive: PromptPerfect
👋 Who am I and why am I writing this newsletter?
My name is Melissa Hopper and I’m a small business consultant and entrepreneur. I’m not an AI expert but rather an AI enthusiast who became curious about how AI could help me in my business and help my clients in their businesses.
I decided to start this newsletter to share what I’m learning and what my clients are learning about how AI can help small businesses. To learn more about what I do, click here.
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