Do you remember the first time you came across generative AI? I first saw it being used about 4 years ago, someone I knew was using it to come up with story ideas and headlines.
I was a bit affronted, what was this robot that was doing (a poor version of) my job? The formation of an idea for a story is one of my favourite parts of working with our clients and it’s why our clients pay for our service, I couldn’t see the value add for anyone in using AI in public relations.
I have no idea how much that person still uses AI, but I do know that when it comes to generative AI in my professional and personal life, my reluctance has grown exponentially, as the use of ChatGPT and other platforms has grown.
2025 really has been a watershed year for AI platforms making their way into the daily toolkit of many Australian workers. And we’ve seen that very clearly at Media Stable. In the first quarter of this calendar year, the team here started to notice our clients dabbling with ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs).
Clients who had struggled to find the time to produce content were now sending through reams of ideas and stories for us to pitch. Clients who had always felt they were bad writers were excited to have a robotic writer monkey to put their ideas together.
With then as-yet untrained eyes to AI, there were some initial moments when we couldn’t quite put our finger on why, but the content we were receiving just didn’t seem right. There’s now a term for it: ‘AI slop’.
Now, we can sense slop from a mile away, and there are AI checking platforms like GPTZero and Originality.ai which can confirm our fears.
It’s disheartening that our experts’ ideas, intellectual property, knowledge and years of expertise can be boiled down to just into a few unnatural, superficial lines generated by AI, particularly when we are elevating and platforming experts for what they know, and how they communicate it.
If we don’t flex our creative thinking and writing muscles, much like the pen writing muscles in our hands, they will be lost. I notice my own reliance on AI developing, and I need to pull it in to line. I can’t just yell out, ‘Hey Google’ and wait for the entire internet to be distilled into a snappy response every time I want to know something.
If you’ve lost your way with AI and you want to reclaim your creativity, try these four short activities.
- What has got you most fired up about your industry this year? Once you’ve got an answer, turn that topic into a headline. You’ve got the makings of a blog or LinkedIn post or Media Board!
- Word association… this can be fun. Head to your favourite news site and start reading the headlines. Read one word and the first word that comes to mind in response, write it down. A daily ritual of this practice will give you a nice little list of words to accumulate over time. Word nerds will be in to this.
- Pick a word of the day. Be conscious of the conversations you’re having in your workday and notice the words you reach for regularly. Start to switch up your vocabulary and get out of your language habits.
- Exercise your mind with games like the NY Times Wordle and Connections, or the New Yorker’s Shuffalo – keeping your vocabulary sharp and fresh, will make you a better writer.
By Emily Morgan, Media Engagement Manager at Media Stable
