Client fires writer after learning she used AI to write content

San Francisco A woman has revealed that her long-time client stopped working with her after discovering that she was using a ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence (AI) to write content.

Tina Sendin, who works a full-time job in marketing and does freelance writing on the side, shared her experience of using an AI writing tool to assist with her workload on Business Insider. "I was juggling a lot when a longtime client commissioned me for a three-month project. It entailed writing a series of how-to guides and 56 articles for their site," she wrote.

"Since I couldn't clone myself, I tried what I thought would be the next best thing: I used AI." She started using Jasper.ai to create up to 20 pieces in a month for this client. "I essentially used Jasper.ai as an extension of myself," she explained.

Sendin used Jasper instead of ChatGPT and Bard, as it contains pre-built templates that serve as prompts. "Jasper did most of the work and I did minimal editing," she claimed.

After working together for months, her client started using an AI-content detector, and as they discovered that the content she gave them was AI-generated, they terminated the agreement and paid her less than 40 per cent of the original fee after she delivered all the articles they had agreed on.

Sendin further mentioned that while this was not the outcome she intended, it shifted her mindset on how to use AI to keep clients rather than lose them. "I learned a valuable lesson the hard way - AI is a tool, not something that should replace you," she added.