There’s a debate in the UK over the law surrounding AI and copyright, with artists like Sir Paul McCartney warning that, “Rip off technology that might make it impossible for musicians and artists to make a living.”
Obviously, it isn’t just musicians who should be concerned, it’s anyone involved in the creative industry, including travel writers.
The Rise of AI
The MAKE IT FAIR campaign warns that ‘AI is profiting from human creativity,’ and asks, ‘Isn’t it time creators got their fair share?’
There are more and more articles about how AI can boost travel writing and blogging – “By leveraging the best AI tools for travel blogs, writers can not only enhance their creative processes but also streamline their content production, ensuring they stay ahead in a highly competitive space.” – allaboutai.com
AI response to travel question.
As well as SEO emails popping into my inbox each day, I’m now getting ones offering assistance in utilising AI, while others inform me how AI can enhance my travel experiences – ‘Need help? AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are available 24/7. They book your reservations, answer questions, and even suggest local hotspots. It’s like having a personal travel agent in your pocket.’
AI has already taken jobs in the travel content creation world. Using it is a no brainer. If I ran a company where the creation of mainstream travel content was required, I’d used AI, albeit combined with a small team of human copywriters to tweak and check AI’s work.
However, that’s if I wasn’t bothered about producing travel content that stood out from the competition. If I had a company whose USP was specialised travel, there’s no way I’d want virtually the same content as any rival who knew how to type a question into Chat GPT. It would prove detrimental to my business’s credibility and make a mockery of any ‘specialist’ claims.
There’s only one way to obtain specialist travel knowledge.
So, what’s new?
Something occurred to me while listening to a news report about the AI copyright debate. An artist complained that AI would steal human musicians’ work. The thought that popped into my head was this: ‘Human writers have been ‘borrowing’ our work for years, so what is the difference?’
One difference is AI can steal and reshape our words far quicker than a human can. But here’s something I haven’t heard mentioned in the AI copyright debate yet. At least AI sometimes acknowledges where it got is information. Google AI usually has links to the sources of its answers, Chat GPT occasionally does. That acknowledgement is an improvement for writers who produce good original travel content on their sites.
One travel blogger cut and pasted the whole text from an article Andy wrote about experience Tenerife carnival from a press box.
One of the reasons we stopped posting articles on our The Real Tenerife website was we were scunnered with other writers using our knowledge to boost their credibility and make money in the process. Using websites for research is one thing, everyone involved in travel writing does it, or they should. But using content as a replacement for a lack of knowledge is a different kettle of fish. Over the years, I’ve contacted numerous travel writers/bloggers to request they remove whole passages and sometimes even complete articles which were basically cut and pasted from our websites. It’s not just websites; I’ve seen variations of our content turn up in travel articles in prestigious publications. In one case, in a well-known glossy, the author suddenly veered from eating in the same Tenerife restaurants every visiting travel writer is taken to by the Tenerife Tourist Board, to eating in some far more obscure ones – ones I’d never seen referenced in any other travel articles but which just happened to be mentioned in one of our travel pieces about authentic dining experiences. Not only did the writer visit the same off the beaten track restaurants, she also ate exactly the same dishes that we had outlined in each of these restaurants. Quite a coincidence, eh?
Of course, when someone tweaks and rehashes content they find on the internet, there’s no way to prove it’s been ‘stolen.’
Off the beaten track restaurant on Tenerife.
Quality v Convenience
When it comes to travel writing, we produce original content inspired by our personal experiences. Because of that, I don’t generally feel any more threatened by AI than I did by human content creators. Until it can pull on a rucksack and hoof it around the countryside or the cobbled streets of some historic town centre, AI will never be able to replicate what we do.
Will we lose work because of it? I’m convinced we already have. Even specialists within the travel industry look for ways to save money. But that’s business, and it’s why Andy and I invest in our own travel websites and publications.
When a bot can stand in a spot like this, then I’ll worry about being obsolete.
Throughout our travel writing careers, we’ve stuck to our principles and only worked with people we felt shared our ethos. It meant we haven’t earned as much money as we might have otherwise, but it feels good. My view is, if a business doesn’t have a commitment to the quality of the travel content it produces, it doesn’t have a commitment to quality in general, in which case I wouldn’t want to work for it … or use it as a customer.
Ultimately, it’s the end user who matters. They will decide which source best meets their needs. Some people will be happy with the superficial, others will want more in-depth, insightful information. It’s always been this way. I hope it always will.
A question that interests me though is just how good is AI at answering specific travel queries, especially compared with humans?
To get some idea, I asked five specialist travel questions to see who performed best.
Read the results in Putting AI v Travel Writers v Copywriters to the Test.
