5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT to Create Your Law Firm’s Website Content

If you haven’t tried ChatGPT yet, you’re missing out! It’s a powerful tool that can be used to save time across a variety of tasks. Is content creation one of the things that ChatGPT is useful for? While some people suggest using AI tools to write web content, most experts recommend against it. Here’s what you need to know about using ChatGPT for creating your law firm’s website content. 

The Risks of Using ChatGPT for Web Content

ChatGPT and other AI tools are extremely valuable and a great platform for working smarter rather than harder. That being said, using such options does come with a downside. Here are the key risks associated with using ChatGPT to create web content. 

1. ChatGPT can be wrong – and often is. One of the main problems with AI tools is the confidence with which they display incorrect information. Though the tools will always generate a response, you might not be getting accurate information. That would never be a great thing, but it’s especially troublesome for the legal industry. People searching for legal content must be able to count on the truthfulness and accuracy of the information they find. ChatGPT relies on patterns in its existing training data, which can fall out of date (or be based on information that wasn’t correct in the first place). Proceed with caution when leveraging AI tools for information that you present as factual. 
2. AI tools are short on creativity and depth – ChatGPT cannot produce original ideas or content; it can only leverage information that’s already out there. Even if you are super careful about the prompts you put in, what you get back is not likely to be as engaging as what a human would write. Furthermore, you can’t expect such a tool to match your brand voice or be consistent with what you’ve already published. Readers who follow your blog or normally read your content are likely to recognize a different tone. AI-generated content lacks emotion and won’t be able to humanize your firm’s brand. 
3. Who owns AI content? Since we know that ChatGPT gets its information from the training data it has access to, there’s no good way to know where the information really comes from. The content it supplies exists somewhere else on the web – but you have no way to cite the original publisher. That also means that if you prompt ChatGPT with “Write a blog article about 5 steps for filing unemployment claims”, what is returned will have been published elsewhere – maybe even by a competing firm. So, who would own that content? You wouldn’t just go to another firm’s blog and copy their content, but ChatGPT isn’t all that different. 
4. ChatGPT content can reflect biases – There can always be inherent biases present in the training data AI tools use. As of right now, we don’t really know the source of all ChatGPT data and how it’s reviewed for biases. We don’t know if information has been fact-checked or how. Information could exhibit stereotypes or make assumptions that make people uncomfortable. This could lead to all sorts of issues that you don’t want to deal with. 
5. Information can’t be verified due to a lack of crawling – ChatGPT cannot crawl the web like a search engine. Unlike traditional search engine results, ChatGPT is based on a current database and can’t “look around” for new information. That means content may not be up to date on the latest laws, regulations, rulings, or other important legal matters. Again, this is particularly troublesome for anyone offering legal insights. You’re much better off relying on the specialized expertise of your team, even though it takes more time. 

Related: The Law Firm Guide to Content Marketing

Takeaway:

There are a lot of great use cases for ChatGPT, but creating web content isn’t one of them. In fact, doing so can actually hurt your brand if you share information that is untrue, inaccurate, or just plain unengaging. Remember, part of the appeal of original content is to connect with your audience at a more human level. Relying on technology may have the opposite effect. If you are low on time but have a content wish list a mile long, consider outsourcing your content creation. We can help you to create a strong content marketing strategy based on audience profiles, personalized consulting, and industry research. Or, sign up for our Blogging for Lawyers course, which covers actionable, hands-on guidance for using blogging to chase your passion, build your reputation, become a better lawyer and, most importantly, bring in work.