Perplexity on Ai for Marketing: Part 3

Nightcafe generated image using DALL-E-3 using the prompt, “an ai robot wrestling with a writer over who will write a story on a piece of paper in an architects' office.” Noteworthy is Ai’s default (in any prompt I’ve given it) translation of “architect” and “writer” into a male character, even when I use the term “genderless.” For a “marketing professional,” it defaults to a female character. That’s a subtle reminder that Ai relies on existing data to shape its responses; Ai needs DEI training.

This past week, I had a conversation with a Fellow in the AIA and in SMPS about Ai in architectural marketing.

Of course, SMPS (the Society of Marking Professional Services) is tossing this topic around. SMPS only permits members to access their resources, so I can’t share their take. Still, it’s good to know they share some of my conclusions.

So, let’s continue my conversation about Ai’s influence on architectural marketing with the Ai-powered search engine, Perplexity. I asked Perplexity a fairly key question: can Ai tell stories?

Yes, Ai can assist in storytelling through various platforms and tools. These Ai story generators and editors are designed to help individuals create and edit stories by generating unique story ideas, prompts, and even full narratives.

They use artificial intelligence to aid in the writing process, such as generating chapters or scenes, making text longer or shorter, adding vivid descriptions, and even mimicking a famous author's style.

While Ai can contribute to the creative process, it's important to note that the human element of storytelling, including intuition, emotion, and cultural understanding, remains essential for crafting compelling and meaningful narratives.

Perplexity, dear technology that it is, validated my whole point. I’m done with this topic, right? No. I wanted to dive deeper with my next question: how do ai-generated stories differ from human-written stories?

AI-generated stories differ from human-written stories in several key ways. Differences Between AI-Generated and Human-Written Stories:

Creativity and Originality:

Human Writing: Human writers infuse their content with creativity, emotions, and personal experiences, drawing on a lifetime of experiences and imagination.

AI Writing: AI lacks consciousness and personal experiences, generating text based on learned patterns without true creativity.

Context and Nuance:

Human Writing: Humans understand deep contextual nuances, cultural references, sentiments, and implied meanings behind words, adding depth to their writing.

AI Writing: AI struggles with capturing deeper context or sentiment, focusing more on grammatical correctness rather than nuanced understanding.

Ethical and Moral Considerations:

Human Writing: Authors often consider societal impact and moral implications in their writing, reflecting their values.

AI Writing: AI lacks morals or ethics, potentially generating insensitive or inappropriate content without awareness of ethical considerations.

Evolution and Learning:

Human Writing: Human writers evolve over time, learning from feedback, adapting their style, and developing a unique voice.

AI Writing: AI lacks the ability to evolve in the same way as human writers, as it does not learn or adapt its style based on feedback.

In summary, while AI-generated stories offer speed and scalability advantages, human-written stories excel in creativity, emotional depth, nuanced understanding, ethical considerations, and the ability to evolve over time based on feedback and experiences.

FYI, Perplexity cited only one source for this information. You can access it here.

In my book Designing Words and in all my speaking engagements, I emphasize the need for architects to translate the ideas, intention and passion behind their work and approach to non architects using the age-old practice of storytelling.

Perplexity, without any special prompt, has included all the essentials that support my conviction that the stories of your work—and the passion, motivation, resonance, and beliefs that fuel that work—can only come from one place: your head, your experience, your creativity, your intention, your voice.

In my final post, we’ll see how Ai does generating my story…

If you are interested in creating great stories about architecture, architects, architectural practice, and your projects or if you’re planning to pursue Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows, please check out my books on this website or through your favorite e-bookseller.