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This Week in AI — 📣 Here’s how PR firms are treating AI
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This Week in AI — 📣 Here’s how PR firms are treating AI

January 9, 2024 | By: Dave Isaac

Headlines You Should Know

 

OpenAI’s GPT Store Will Open This Week

Initially intended as a November 2023 launch, OpenAI’s GPT Store will finally open its virtual doors in the coming days. Last week, the company emailed developers to let them know how to prepare (more on that later). It included brand guidelines (with preferred language like “powered by OpenAI” instead of “written by ChatGPT”), “builder profile” requirements, and a reminder to ensure that custom GPTs adhere to OpenAI’s usage policies.

The long-awaited marketplace allows creators to share and monetize their custom GPTs for OpenAI’s paid subscribers to use. While some are drawing comparisons between the GPT Store and Apple’s App Store or Google Play, there’s a crucial difference. Because GPTs are ::checks brand guidelines:: “powered by OpenAI,” creators are beholden to however ChatGPT’s large language model is working at any given time. A change in the model will mean a change in how a custom GPT performs.

When the store opens, share your favorite GPTs with us. We’ll be on the lookout too, and will share some of the best GPTs for communications professionals in a future edition of the newsletter.

Here’s How PR Firms Are Treating AI

Muck Rack released an update to its State of AI in PR survey it first ran last May, shining a light on how the technology has permeated the industry. The use of GenAI has more than doubled (64% now vs. 28% in May 2023), but it’s still the Wild Wild West. 

Only 21% of PR firms offer AI training or have an AI policy in place, and just 19% disclose their use of AI to clients all the time — while 35% of brands expect their agencies to disclose AI use all the time. Showing transparency about AI use builds trust with clients. If they are uncertain about the technology, explaining how you plan to use it and how you’d safeguard their data can go a long way.

A whopping 95% of PR pros say they always edit AI-generated outputs, and 61% say those edits are extensive. While writing is the biggest use of AI in PR today, respondents think the biggest impact in the future could come in the form of research and list building. PR pros have been at the forefront of AI since ChatGPT’s early days, especially since writing is so core to the job, and the continued use of the technology puts the industry in a great position to find new use cases and define the next generation of AI tools.

Elsewhere …

Tips and Tricks

🛒 Are you GPT Store ready? 

What’s happening: The pending opening of the GPT Store means you’ll want to review the status of any GPTs you’ve created. If you hit “publish” or “update” in the top-right corner of the screen, you’re met with three options: only me, anyone with a link, or everyone. If you hover over the last one, a pop-up bubble says, “This GPT may appear in the GPT Store (coming soon).”

Caution: If you select “everyone,” that apparently includes search engines. Google, Bing, and others have been indexing GPTs that are made public and, if you know what you’re looking for, you can find GPTs even though the store is not yet live. For instance, a Google search for “public relations” within the OpenAI URL shows 96 results. 

Try this: If you just want to share with select OpenAI users, the “anyone with a link” option is a good way to keep your GPT relatively under wraps. If you’re eager to share your work in the store, go ahead and click the “everyone” radio button. There’s also a check box at the bottom of the builder profile where you can choose to accept feedback from other users who try your GPT.

Quote of the Week

“AI is in the phase when kids live like tiny energetic monsters, before they’ve learned to be thoughtful about the world and responsible for others. That’s why I’ve come to feel that AI needs to be socialized the way young children are — trained not to be a jerk, to adhere to ethical standards, to recognize and excise racial and gender biases. It needs, in short, to be parented.”

— Elizabeth Spiers, a journalist and a digital media strategist, in a New York Times op-ed