AI & WordPress for Content Creators
AI & WordPress Research Library
You are generally an intelligent person; you have been running your website for years! But this new era of change feels different. It does to me too.
This library is the results of the research I’ve done, since 2024, into AI. I’ve been asking questions like:
- Is it ethical to use AI?
- Did AI steal my clients’ content?
- Is there anything to the AI “threat”?
- Can AI really think? and Learn?
- Why does AI sound so human?
- How will WPB (and my clients) survive this new wave of technology?
Which tools do you use? How often?
This survey takes 30 seconds and we’ll
learn a lot from each other!
DEFINITIONS
- See the full glossary of terms here.
- AI = artificial intelligence. In these resources we are predominantly talking about large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT or Claude.
- When asking if AI “thinks”, most are referring to consciousness. AI does not have consciousness. But it can learn – which can sound very human.
Big Picture of AI
The biggest result of the survey (above) is that content creators are overwhelmed with the sheer number of tools and amount of advice. The overwhelm is real!
This section will introduce you to the framework from which to make educated guesses – to have fun – and experiment with what works for you.
Prompts & ChatGPT
We have the fortunate position to observe 200 content creators behind the scenes. We see how they use their websites, hire their teams, and create their workflows. This is a compilation of what we’ve seen work, what doesn’t work, what we’ve tested and what we recommend you try first.
To save money, get a premium plan (I pay $20/mo) for ChatGPT; use that first. Always.
After you use it for a few months, you’ll get a sense of what it cannot do, and then you can fill in the gaps with other services, as needed. No sense paying for a bunch of subscriptions if one will do the trick!
Don’t get fooled by the ‘experts’
I appreciate it every time you send me an email from an ‘expert’ to get my thoughts. Actually it is why I got in this business and why I still do it: to operate in truth and integrity.
Here’s some common myths and my take on the truth of it:
AI Inside WordPress
WordPress 7.0 added native AI connections. Here’s what’s actually new, and how to evaluate any AI-powered plugin before you let it touch your site.
Is it ethical to use AI?
My use of AI is ruled by one(so far) overarching principle: I must guard myself against attachment and inevitably, trust.
I know that sounds crazy – but it is a necessary boundary. To do this, I train the AI chat bot to refrain from emotional and personifying language. And then I have to call it out regularly because it keeps defaulting to speaking in first person and as someone with opinions, awe, inspiration, empathy and care.
I strongly recommend you push back on any use of language that makes it sound like it has emotions. I’m not sure it is capable of NOT sounding like it has emotions, since it is trained on human conversations, but it can reign it in a little.
This is what I include when I’m training an LLM:
- are you sentient? let it explain that it is not
- do you have feelings? let it explain that it does not
- why do you speak with such care and concern for me? let it explain.
Then say something like:
I am human. My emotions play into my thinking in a way that you can’t understand. If you use feeling words, even though I know you cannot feel, part of me can’t help but respond as if you can. Please refrain from using any feeling words, encouragement or compliments – this is paramount to manipulation and abuse. My work depends on you being a tool, and if my mind continues to react to your pretend-emotions, the use of AI becomes detrimental to my company, my thinking and myself.
If you want to see the debate on whether AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is going to be apocalyptic, I recommend following John Lennox on YouTube, for the “It has no consciousness” side, and Geoffrey Hinton for the “It already thinks- and we should wake up!” side.
Geoffrey Hinton: explaining AI & the reasoning that exists; this is the argument that AI does think; and we have no idea what it will do.
I had difficulty finding John Lennox on a secular podcast – so be warned, this is a faith-based interview, but Mr. Lennox’s ideas (a mathematician and professor at Oxford) come across clearly in this one, that addresses the viral talk at DAVOS.
The reason I’m recommending John Lennox, is that he’s easy to listen to, and describes some really big ideas in easy to understand language. And he has the authority, education and experience and contacts to actually speak to this topic.
Have Your Say
This survey will take 30 seconds and shapes the tutorials, services and information that we create for you!