Software is getting steadily better at passing the Turing test. This doesn’t mean computers are people and should have their civil rights recognized, but it raises some problems. Students use computer-generated output to generate essays and answer exam questions. A bot called ChatGPT has gotten a lot of attention for its ability to generate coherent answers to questions.

The issue of using AI to generate what’s euphemistically called “content writing” — low-quality filler for business pages and blogs — hasn’t gotten as much attention. The people who work in that field need to worry, though. If a customer wants some generic text to give the impression of having something useful to say, can a machine do it well enough? Computer-generated output is cheaper than paying content mill rates. It will probably have fewer errors in spelling and grammar.

Writers can use these tools themselves. They can generate entire essays or mix computer-generated text with their own words. Whether this is cheating depends on the bot’s terms of service and the customer’s requirements. If your contract says all the words have to be your own, using AI-generated text is most likely a violation and could get you fired. Is it a copyright violation? That’s a tough legal question, which I won’t try to answer, but the US Copyright Office seems to think AI-generated works can’t be copyrighted. That could easily change.

AI looks like bad news for many content writers. However, it has weaknesses, and there will be lots of room for good writers for the foreseeable future. While software can generate feel-good phrasing, it’s harder to tailor writing to an audience’s interests and current concerns. Telling accurate from inaccurate information is hard too, though people generally aren’t very good at it either outside their areas of expertise. Writers who want to survive should focus on what they know best and perfect their ability to write about it.

Personal and brand styles will become increasingly valuable. AI can imitate it to some extent, but it remains an imitation. Develop a distinctive, appealing style, and you’ve got more rapport with your audience. An AI doesn’t have the experience of being a person, and that makes a difference no matter how much information it has at hand.

AI-generated material will soon be common on websites, and it could be hard to tell from hack writing. People who write with care and know what they’re doing, though, will be safe for a long time.