PSA: Don’t Use AI To Write Horse Sales Ads
“And honestly, he’s thriving.”
“Here’s the thing.”
“Let’s be honest.”
“He’s the kind that tries, aims to please, and would absolutely text you ‘did I do good?’ if he had thumbs.”
These are just some of phrases I keep seeing over and over again in advertisements of horses for sale on Facebook, Instagram and beyond. It tips me off right away – person selling this horse is either not real (aka it’s a scam) or they used ChatGPT or another AI program to write the ad for them.
Good God, y’all.
It makes me cringe. No matter how you feel about the use of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives, it’s too late to stuff the cat back into the bag. But before original, authentic human thought becomes a thing of the past (and we all end up looking like those human blobs from the Pixar movie Wall-E), I beg you to think, YES THINK, critically about how AI use can erode trust and truly affect the relationships we have in the horse industry.
Selling horses ain’t for the faint of heart, it never was, even before AI. But at the very core of the exchange comes some level of trust between all parties involved. A lot of times, horses change hands through relationships – one trainer or owner or breeder vouches for the reputation and character of someone else or their program. People feel good that the horse is going to a caring and appropriate home. That trust is erased in an instant when someone is too lazy to accurately describe the animal for sale and instead relies on AI to do it with some overused catch phrases and cringeworthy basic language.
It makes the whole thing feel gross and dishonest.
Most people who are “horse people” do it because they love the animals. We forge these amazing connections with the horses. It’s the bond and the way we communicate with them in such profound ways which allows us to achieve incredible athletic feats along the way. It’s a sport unlike any other because of that relationship.
So please, don’t dumb it all down by using AI to try to describe your sales horse’s best qualities. You don’t have to be a gifted writer or editor to describe a good horse to other horse people. We get it, because we all speak the same horse loving language that AI will never be able to emulate.
If you support AI use in your daily life, great. I see no harm in using it to schedule meetings or events, and organize your admin duties. Or even to take notes and transcribe your thoughts. But even AI needs an editor, a real human one, with real thoughts, feelings and life experience. As evidenced in so many blips and bloopers we’ve seen online in recent months.