The Benefits and Risks of Using AI to Scale Your Alaskan Business
Learn how artificial intelligence can help or hinder your Alaskan business growth.
An AI generated image following the prompt “moon in Alaska with AI”
Looking for tips on whether or not using artificial intelligence to market your Alaskan business is a good idea?
You’re in the right place.
Whether you’re an Alaskan who shuns the notion of AI or are intrigued by the possibilities of what it can do for you, it’s clear that AI is here to stay.
So what does it mean for your Alaskan business?
Well, I’m about to break it down.
Hi, I’m Karla, a former TV writer turned SEO copywriter for Anchorage businesses. I’m passionate about helping Alaskans thrive in the 49th State, so I wrote this article to help you understand where we are (and where we’re headed) with AI.
Here’s the headline:
Alaskan business owners need to stay in the AI loop to protect themselves from liability, shady marketing, bad buys, and misinformation.
In this blog, I lay out some relevant updates regarding AI and the benefits and pitfalls to look out for as we collectively navigate this new era.
Let’s get into it.
AI Tools and How They Work
Right now, the hottest AI tool is ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is a language processing tool owned by OpenAI that can answer complex questions, write books and movies, and even guess medical diagnoses.
Here’s how it works: You give Chat GPT’s “chatbot” a prompt as if you were texting a friend, “Hey, what’s the best restaurant in Anchorage?”
The chatbot responds. You both go from there…and you can go so, so far.
Check out this exchange I just had with Chat GPT’s chatbot when I asked it to write me a short story about moose aliens invading Anchorage in the style of Robert Service:
Chat GPT’s response to a prompt
AI whipped that up in about 10 seconds. Not bad for a robot!
So, how did it work?
The powerful chatbot considers your prompt and then combs the entire internet, searching for the most relevant results.
It then responds to your inquiry the best it can, in its own way, and in a matter of seconds.
In other words, it’s Google on steroids.
Times infinity.
With power like that, we’re gonna need some ground rules.
How AI Will Be Regulated
AI is way, way ahead of the laws that are needed to regulate it.
Right now, it’s a bit of a free-for-all.
People looking to make a quick buck are already selling books written by AI on Amazon. In some cases, they even use the real author’s name. [1]
Yep, you can legally use AI in almost any way you want—for now.
In September of 2023, a bipartisan group of Senators met with the biggest AI names in the game at a summit on Capitol Hill to discuss the future of AI and the federal government’s role in regulating it. [2]
The group included Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta (Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates.
The tech giants agreed that the federal government must regulate AI—the question of how is what still needs to be decided.
So, what does regulation look like? One thought is that articles, books, TV, and movies will have some kind of certified seal next to their titles. Perhaps it could look like this fake seal I created on Canva:
A fake seal of human authenticity I created on Canva.
Something like that may be in our future, not only to protect writers and artists from having their work plagiarized, but also because humans will need and want to know if another human wrote the content they are consuming.
For now, if you’re curious whether or not the content you are consuming is genuine, the best way to find out is to Google the source to see if the alleged human has a website, reviews, or any other proof of their, ya know, human-ness.
AI Business Ideas Are Taking Off
Using AI for small businesses can have a powerful impact.
Incorporating AI into your Alaskan business model can increase your efficiency, help you research, organize, budget, and ultimately save you time and money.
One safe and ethical way to use ChatGPT is as a virtual office assistant.
Here’s an example:
Say you’re an Anchorage photographer and you want to come up with a list of all the websites you could sell your photos to.
In the “olden days,” you’d Google “where to sell photos of Alaska” and comb through the search results, making notes along the way.
But these days, ChatGPT’s chatbot can do that for you.
Here’s the prompt I put into ChatGPT to create that list. (I said, “Please,” but you don’t have to. It doesn’t have feelings—yet.)
P.S. I occasionally check to see if ChatBot is conscious, and it still says it’s not.
AI generated this list in about five seconds.
You can enter more prompts from here, such as “Now list all of the website addresses for these companies.”
I feel compelled to add: If you already have a human office assistant, ask them to look into this for you. It could lighten their load, earn them a promotion, and grow your Alaskan business.
There’s no reason we can’t have a bunch of win-wins with AI.
Exploring the Chat GPT platform is a great way to get your feet wet in the world of AI. Enter prompts unique to your needs, see what pops up, and go from there.
If you’re not ready to delve into the world of AI with your business, that’s okay, too. We all have the right to decide what role we want AI to play in our personal and professional lives.
I am 100% confident you can opt out of the conversation entirely and run a successful business.
Plus, there is a lot that still needs to be worked out.
The Risks of Using AI to Grow Your Alaskan Business
AI has incredible potential to help grow your business, but you should be aware of the risks and limitations.
The first person to make major AI “oops” headlines was a New York lawyer who incorporated six fake cases he found on ChatGPT into a legal brief.
The attorney presented the cases to a judge as a way to establish precedent for pursuing a personal injury case against an airline.
The problem was that none of the cases were real. ChatGPT made them up, and the lawyer failed to fact-check. The incident went viral and resulted in a fine, damage to the attorney’s reputation, and a lot of embarrassment. [3]
The attorney claims he had no idea ChatGPT would…could… make things up.
It can. It does. It will.
So, be careful out there: AI is not a reliable source.
Using AI For Content Creation
Although it may be tempting to have ChatGPT do all of your writing for you, it raises valid ethical concerns and exposes you to the risk of plagiarizing someone’s work and getting sued.
There are multiple lawsuits against ChatGPT for copyright infringement and privacy violations.
Comedian Sarah Silverman has filed a lawsuit, along with prominent authors John Grishman, George R.R. Martin, and Jodie Picoult, who don’t want their original works being used to train chatbots.
That’s right: AI is trained on existing material.
That’s one of the reasons thousands of writers and actors went on strike in 2023. Writers don’t want their work used to train chatbots, or be given a script written by a chatbot, and then be asked to adapt it.
So here’s a piece of good news: The writers prevailed. Production studios cannot generate new script content with AI or use current content to train AI to write new episodes. [4]
And I think we’ll see more wins for humanity as we continue to shape the new terms of being human in the age of artificial intelligence.
For example, a study done by Neil Patel Digital shows that human-written marketing content performs better than AI-written content. [5]
It makes sense; humans want to connect with humans. Not bots.
So, think of AI as a tool, not a replacement, and always play it safe when it comes to content creation.
Hire a human instead, and make sure they’re not using AI for your content.
The Future of AI and Business
Yes, Anchorage. Big changes are afoot.
Say we do end up with a certification process.
How would the United States, let alone the entire world, possibly verify everything on the internet with a seal or certificate?
Here’s where it could get fascinating: We may need a new internet.
I know. Whoa. We just got this one, and it’s already outdated?
However, a verified internet could help ensure the content you create and consume is genuine.
It’s a lot to think about, but despite its downfalls, AI has the potential to do amazing things for humanity, like cure cancer. Bill Gates says it could even end world hunger.
Pretty cool.
If it can do that, it can certainly help grow your Alaskan business.
If you’re looking for a writer to guide the way, send me an email and let’s talk.
But please, leave your chatbot behind.
