Charting a New Path with Text and Talk

Generative AI and particularly ChatGPT can potentially save you a lot of time. It’s ideal for outlining, creating lists, writing emails, and much more.

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But can AI write a podcast? What happens when you ask ChatGPT to create a podcast script? To find out, MakeUseOf’s podcast team agreed to use ChatGPT to script an episode of the show.

Why We Used ChatGPT for a Podcast Script

Since the launch of ChatGPT 3.5, generative AI has become a popular topic. MakeUseOf’s Really Useful Podcast has regularly discussed ChatGPT and other forms of AI, so it made sense to find a new way of approaching the topic.

After all, generative AI has the potential to be a powerful labor-saving tool. Risks to creative industries have been cited, but my own feeling is that this is a tool that can strengthen, rather than weaken.

But also, it’s an interesting challenge for AI. Creating a script is one thing, but can generative AI “write” something that is interesting, or will it come across as flat?

So, to frame a fresh discussion of ChatGPT, the podcast team (that’s me Christian Cawley, site editor-in-chief Ben Stegner, and Tech Explained editor Gavin Phillips) decided that it might be interesting to use the technology to script a podcast.

Integrating ChatGPT Into the Really Useful Podcast Format

The Really Useful Podcast is a weekly mix of tech news that affects everyone (e.g. changes to social media, online security issues, new iPhone or Android updates, etc.), explainers, tips and tricks, and finally recommendations.

As you can see, this is far more complicated than a show that, say, tells a story, or discusses celebrity gossip.

It immediately became clear that the team would face some challenges with getting ChatGPT to match the show’s format. Usually prepared with an outline of links and nothing more, the script would give us the most robust structure yet.

This risked making the end product sound very different to every other show, but it was worth it to find something to add to the list of things to do with ChatGPT .

3 Limitations With ChatGPT’s Scriptwriting Abilities

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Finding ways to pose the instructions that would create a usable script revealed various limitations to ChatGPT.

1. Topical Writing Isn’t Possible

ChatGPT 3.5 is unsuitable for topical writing. It has been trained on a dataset that contains material up to September 2021 , so the shortcoming here is obvious.

For the Really Useful Podcast, this meant that the show’s news section would remain conversational. Instead, the introduction to the section would be created with ChatGPT.

2. ChatGPT Doesn’t Quite Understand

Generative AI can be a problem for editors; while some publications are replacing writers with AI, others are not. The reason? Well, it doesn’t give you the same insight a human writer can add to an explainer, guide, or set of steps.

In preparing this podcast with ChatGPT, it became apparent that asking it to re-interpret the articles we would use for our explainers, tips, and tricks section would result in dialogue that wasn’t 100% right.

Again, the solution was to rely on ChatGPT only for the introduction to podcast’s middle section.

(Of course, ChatGPT cannot understand in the human sense of the word.)

3. ChatGPT Does Not Recommend

In order to mitigate legal claims, ChatGPT is not able to make recommendations. Indeed, upon the first request to “introduce a podcast section on recommending technology” it responded with:

Variations were attempted, but all resulted in largely the same response. Unperturbed, the recorded podcast featured a shortened version of this “script.”

How the ChatGPT-Scripted Podcast Turned Out

Recording our AI-created edition of the Really Useful Podcast required both participants (myself and Ben Stegner) to have a copy of the script. This was created by copying responses from ChatGPT into a shared Google Doc.

After the theme tune and greetings, the show kicked off with a response to this ChatGPT prompt:

Write an intro for the podcast “The Really Useful Podcast”

The result was quite good:

Welcome to “The Really Useful Podcast,” the show that brings you the latest and greatest in technology, productivity, and life hacks. Each episode, we’ll explore innovations and techniques that can help you make the most of your digital life, whether you’re looking to boost your productivity, simplify your workflow, or just stay up-to-date on the latest tech trends.

“The Really Useful Podcast” is your one-stop-shop for all things practical and innovative. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn something new – because “The Really Useful Podcast” is here to help you get the most out of your digital world.

Note that I cut some text: “With expert guests, insightful interviews, and hands-on demonstrations.” While the Really Useful Podcast has featured guests in the past, this is an unusual feature of the show.

Next, I requested a disclaimer:

Write a disclaimer saying that this week’s podcast has been scripted by chatgpt

From a very wordy response, I kept the following:

Please note that this week’s podcast episode has been scripted by chatgpt, an AI language model designed to assist with content creation.

Further, I explained in the show that each ChatGPT-scripted dialogue would be preceded with a specific sound effect.

The news section introduction was achieved with the following prompt:

Write an introduction to news items about Elon Musk banning the NYT from a Twitter blue flag, ChatGPT being banned in Italy, and the 50th anniversary of the mobile phone

For the show’s middle section (explainers, tips, and tricks) the intro prompt was:

Write an introduction to discussion about decrypting ransomware, games not working on Windows 11, and why you shouldn’t pay to use Microsoft Word

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Finally, ChatGPT was asked to script a section on tech recommendations:

Introduce a podcast section on recommending technology

The result, attempted many times with much frustration, was always a variation on:

As an AI language model, I cannot comment or recommend the creation of a podcast on behalf of individuals or organizations.

The finished Really Useful Podcast can be listened to on Spotify , and you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts . To give you an idea of how the scripted sections turned out, I’ve edited them into a compressed edition.

Should You Use ChatGPT to Write a Podcast?

Having used ChatGPT to write as much of this podcast as possible, I’ve come to a few conclusions.

Most importantly, and as is the case with many other written uses of generative AI, ChatGPT is great at outlining. It understands formats and can give you the structure to work with.

When it comes to topical material, insight, and recommendations, ChatGPT is unsuitable. Requesting any dialogue or prose along these lines is a waste of time.

Finally, ChatGPT has reasonably good variation in language use. There is some repetition, and parts of what it produces can be overlong and exhaustive. Overall, however, it produces enough material to use, even if you need to cut some.

As such, if you’re thinking about using ChatGPT to script your podcast, it’s worth spending some time working on some prompts. That said, I’m not planning to use it again on the Really Useful Podcast any time soon.

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

But can AI write a podcast? What happens when you ask ChatGPT to create a podcast script? To find out, MakeUseOf’s podcast team agreed to use ChatGPT to script an episode of the show.