The cinema is a beloved American pastime that seems to have magically survived both streaming services and a pandemic. From the joys of first seeing that hilarious puppet scene in The Sound of Music, to finally catching the reference for New York tourists always yelling “I’m walkin’ here,” at taxis, film is ingrained into our very culture.
So, what happens when that culture is regenerated using AI (artificial intelligence) to write new scripts? The visuals might be stunning and the soundscapes full of a creative symphony, but everything feels oddly familiar. It’s like you’ve seen this film three or four times already, just with different overlays. When the credits are rolling, you get a sinking feeling that the entire movie was stitched together from already existing scripts, re-arranged by AI.
That feeling is precisely the issue with AI content SEO written without human oversight. Everything looks smooth and polished, but lacks the subtle nuance and emotional pull that only the human mind can create.
If AI Won an Academy Award, Does it Deserve it?
A clarification should be made that there is often an intense stigma against AI use rather than judging the quality that it produces. A highly respected investor posed a philosophical argument, “Should a movie be made entirely with artificial intelligence and win an Academy Award, does it deserve it?”* As an audience member, admiration might go into the observations of the specific moments of cinematography but very little thought is often put into who or how a movie is made.
In the same way, should writing be good quality and provide accurate information for website readers, Google will not de-rank it. Google, however, will de-rank duplicate content as well as anything that does not pass its EEAT test.
Google’s Take on AI vs Human Writing
For Google, where the vast majority of global search inquiries still happen, the results are what matter most. Poor-quality information generated by an AI doesn’t quite meet the mark of new standards released in 2023. Google has a pretty straightforward idea of what content matters. It must be catered to a people-first standard, backed by the concept of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
Here’s the problem. When someone runs to Claude or ChatGPT, those systems cannot experience real life. They don’t know the touch of a loved one passing on after a losing fight with cancer. They have never observed the first kiss of lovers after a restaurant proposal. AI cannot feel. It must reassemble information from what already exists, without creating anything new.
The lack of lived experience makes it next to impossible to create topical authority SEO or a film worth watching. Google wants a trust signal. Instead of yet another sequel to The Fast & Furious, Transformers, or The Goonies, Google wants something original with a fresh take.
Why AI-Only Scripts Bomb at the Box Office
Any film created by AI is going to feel like recycled footage. There are exceptions, of course. Films using deep online concepts or visuals may find a cult following, but nothing like something that sparks fan discussions or wins awards.
AI-generated content and “snippets” are shifting how the internet is used. AI visitors (those coming from AI-generated results) have a 4.1% higher bounce rate, visit 1.5 fewer website pages, hit fewer pages per minute, and spend less time on that site. Put simply, AI-generated content is killing a website’s visibility.
It all comes down to content not meeting user expectations. It’s like going in to see a movie after all the hype from a fantastic marketing campaign with McDonald’s Happy Meal toys and “secret” websites with special codes for discount tickets, only to find a plot you’ve seen a hundred times before. The content is flat. It doesn’t have that “zing” needed to break through to readers. Human oversight is required to make a script “pop” on and off screen.
The Technical SEO Fallout: Focusing on Content Quality
AI-written films are thin. That will lead to empty theaters and critical reviews that would normally make a human writer curl up in the basement for a week with Lana Del Rey on repeat and all the curtains drawn.
Using AI content SEO means you can get crawled and indexed, but no payoff due to low-quality content that manipulates rankings. That reads like spam to Google. It may get crawled, but don’t expect to rise in the rankings.
Organic visibility is based on fantastic content. The real problem isn’t AI-generated. It’s that people don’t take the time to make that content better. Blending human strategy with editing and expertise can create topical authority, but that is more than AI alone can achieve.
There must be a content ecosystem. AI content often appears as a standalone piece that is thin or scattered when users seek more in-depth information. It takes a human mind to find the natural connections (based on critical thinking and creativity) to “flush out” those ecosystems with appropriate FAQs, pillar/supportive posts, HowTo schema, and more.
In movie terms, it means your production of a remake of The Sandlot may involve stunning visuals, but there isn’t a compelling story, structure, context, or direction to build a foundation for success. In SEO terms, it means your post or page might initially climb, but without the human-generated structure, it lacks the signals Google and other search engines want.
Legal & Ethical Plot Twists
What if we throw an unexpected complication on the hero’s journey of AI vs human writing? For a quick moment, think about copyright law and creative ownership of content. The Writers Guild of America warns creators to better know what they’re getting into with AI, as it will impact their rights. Right now, that means the WGA states: final creative decision, authorship credit, and ownership must remain with humans.
Authors are also getting into the fight over original content and the quality of the story. The Guardian recently reported on a massive lawsuit from leading authors against Microsoft. The fact is, new scripts and content online may be subject to such legal action in the future. Not only does human writing create better content and inspire more audiences while aligning with SEO goals, but it also might avoid many of the legal barriers that are likely to arise in the next five to twenty years.
Where AI Fits into the Story
All this being said, AI still has a place in the creation of film or online content, but only as a supporting role. While it doesn’t have the unique human genius of creativity, it can be helpful for:
- Brainstorming: Laying out sets of ideas, camera angles, and shot lists for humans to fill in emotional beats.
- Grammar & Spell Check: Acting as a continuity editor or layout editor to ensure no errors when pitching to producers.
- Content Repurposing: Taking existing, human authority articles and shifting them into new formats (social posts, snippets, summaries, etc.).
The fact is, there is no putting the “AI genie” back in the bottle. AI content SEO will have to evolve, but in the argument of AI vs human writing, human directors will always win. The human mind has more unique ideas rooted in firsthand knowledge. AI should be used like a film’s special effects department assistant. It’s great for “wowing” an audience and streamlining production, but it cannot tell the story for you.
Why Our Training Data Makes for Greater Content
Your website’s content quality matters. It cannot feel like a rushed sequel from an award-winning original. While AI can help fix errors or flesh out an overview, human creativity, strategy, and authority are what speak the most to audiences and make search engine algorithms stick around for the credits.
Coming back to the original question, “If AI won an Academy Award, does it deserve it?” Yes, however, we are many years from this ever happening. AI might become a director’s and editor’s best tool but it will not replace the director itself. The emotional weight of a human author will always come out on top for one simple reason: AI cannot create. It must be generated based on what already exists or the training it received. The human mind might also have limits, but our training dataset was supplied by a Creator with much greater power and vastness, and that is what makes notable films and SEO content.
*Cliff Sentell, Cypress Growth Capital
