I’ve been testing out Perplexity.ai.
And it does ONE thing ChatGPT can’t.
Or at least couldn’t last time I checked.
And that’s: give ACCURATE references for its sources.
I remember my first time playing around with ChatGPT. I asked it to write a blog post with references.
It did exactly what I asked. It gave me references…
Straight from its warped, digital imagination.
It just made up the names of books, articles, and authors.
Imagine publishing THAT fairytale?
A sure way to end up wiping chicken ovum from your visage.
I knew the potential of AI for research. Maybe even for me.
But that experience put me off for quite a while.
Because it would be a pain in the rump, having to figure out whose ideas it was referring to, to make sure they were accurate.
I mean, it’s easier to just do the research myself. Write the blog. And know it’s got accurate references.
But since trying out Perplexity.ai, I’m no longer put off.
Reason being…
Perplexity ACTUALLY references.
AND… without making crap up!
Yay!
I gave it a proper whirl the other day when I asked it about email marketing trends for the next 1, 5, and 10 years.
Just to see what the thinking is out there.
The answer (all well-referenced of course 😄) can be summed up in one word:
Complexity.
At least, that’s my distilling down of things.
What it mentioned included… hyper-personalization, advanced automation, and AI integration for predicting customer behavior.
Among a swathe of other things.
A large portion of its answers included AI.
But from what I’ve seen so far…
As soon as you insert AI into something, you get complexity.
Not because it’s hard to get AI to help you produce a quick result.
But can you actually TRUST what it’s telling you?
To ensure trustworthiness, someone needs to check. Someone who knows the topic well. Or are world-class researchers.
So we’re still involving people. We’re just inserting AI at one link of the chain.
Therefore: adding complexity.
So, now that I’ve seen some good results with Perplexity, my flag’s planted in the AI-is-great-for-research camp.
But ONLY when it’s used for things you are skilled at. Because then you can know if the AI’s doing a good job or not.
But for areas where you’re not skilled? Not so much.
Because you’ll be ignorant of the wonky info or sub-par work it’s doing for you.
So if you’re going to use it as a tutor for email marketing, it can help to have other sources to check.
A reliable coach can be super-helpful. Also books, articles, trainings.
And my weekly audio coaching, Email Ace, can help you pick up the know-how you need for simple, low-stress email marketing…
So you can spot when AI is telling fibs!