Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, has launched a new AI plug-in called the Jetpack AI Assistant. The tool can generate and edit text, and is available for free to WordPress.com users for a limited time. Other Jetpack users get 20 free requests and then have to pay a monthly $10 fee. The tool can be used to summarize a blog post in a headline, adjust the tone of text, and even generate an entire blog post from a single prompt. It can also correct spelling and grammar and translate between 12 languages. However, generative AI tools are notoriously inaccurate, and the default copy they produce is often bland or out of date. In Automattic’s own demo, the exchange rates provided for a trip to Japan are from August 2021. Copywriters are already losing work as clients switch to generative AI tools, and many worry about the web being lost in a tsunami of low-grade AI-generated spam. The availability of this tool on one of the world’s biggest blogging and content management platforms will spread this technology further still across the web. The tool significantly reduces the time and effort required in content creation, but it may have harmful effects on the copywriting industry.
