Much is being written at the moment about the rise of AI in communications. There are all sorts of ethical debates taking place around the risks posed by deep fakes and the impact of synthetically generated media. It's clever stuff when used 'properly' (what constitutes properly?) - a point evidenced during the recent AMEC Global Summit by Daniel Fountenberry, the charismatic voice of AI video analysis firm VideoLogic. 

David used the example of Lil Miquela, the lifelike influencer who has 3 million followers, as evidence of how brands are now deploying technology to create the perfect individual to reach their audience. He spoke of the ability of technology to adapt that form to the audience's cultural preferences such as style, language, accent and image.  

This cutting edge approach will undoubtably gain traction as the cost of entry to the world of synthetically generated content (SGC) comes down. At the end of the day, the move to the machines will be dictated by the democratization of the technology. The intersection of AI and publishing represented by SGC is coming ever closer and will become a reality once the cost benefits, understanding and confidence replaces the fear that surrounds the technology.

At arguably the other end of the AI/machine learning spectrum is the emergence of AI-enabled copy writing companies.  

Copy.ai is an artificial intelligence tool that can create copy in a matter of seconds. If the examples in this article are to believed, then the machine is capable of churning content out with relatively little input from a human. And as Marketing Brew writer, Ryan Barwick explains, there's a volume benefit to using these tools for those who need to "bang out posts on multiple platforms...." 

As one who often times suffers from writers block (also known as procrastination), I would welcome the support of a machine to serve up inspiration. It might not hit the right note all of the time. And it will almost certainly need word smithing further, but the possibilities for this are endless. Yes, we're all concerned about being replaced by machines but as in all things, co-existence is going to be the trend of the future. We'll work with the technology to deliver high quality copy to clients and in all likelihood, in a shorter timeframe.  

I can see the adoption of these copy writing technologies taking off exponentially in the next five years as the cost comes down, the quality goes up and the benefits in terms of productivity (and ultimately profitability) become accepted. 

It's a brave new world out there!