The Reykjavik Press Release

This is the Reykjavik press release.

There’s much to say about OpenAI’s newly released ChatGPT.

And make no mis­take about it — much will be said in the com­ing weeks, months, and years.

For now, I’ll settle for this:

I asked ChatGPT to write a press release about a fic­ti­tious hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland. I think it’s a con­ver­sa­tion starter as good as any.

Here we go:

The Press Release Prompt

I wrote this prompt about a fic­ti­tious hotel in Reykjavik:

We run a hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland. We’re launch­ing a new type of hotel room with see-through glass ceil­ings. This will allow our guests to see the aurora boreal­is, i.e. the Northern Lights. Our hotel will also change its name from The Icy Inn to Northern Light Hotel. Can you write a press release to entice inter­na­tion­al travel press to cov­er our story? Please also include two quotes from our CEO, Jerry Silfwer. He is excited and proud to be able to offer guests this exper­i­ence. Mark the begin­ning with “For imme­di­ate release,” and sug­gest a descript­ive head­line for today’s date.

The Reykjavik Press Release

Five seconds later, here’s ChatGPT’s Reykjavik press release:

For imme­di­ate release: December 9, 2022

Experience the Northern Lights from the com­fort of your bed at the newly-ren­ov­ated Northern Light Hotel

The Icy Inn, a pop­u­lar hotel loc­ated in Reykjavik, Iceland, is excited to announce that it will be rebrand­ing as the Northern Light Hotel and launch­ing a new type of hotel room that allows guests to exper­i­ence the aurora boreal­is from the com­fort of their own bed. ¹The press release implies that the hotel hasn’t rebranded itself yet. If you look closely at my prompt, that’s my mis­take (a PR pro­fes­sion­al with 17+ years of exper­i­ence) by phras­ing the prompt … Continue read­ing

The Northern Light Hotel will fea­ture trans­par­ent glass ceil­ings in its newly ren­ov­ated rooms, provid­ing guests with a unique and unfor­get­table view of the Northern Lights. This nat­ur­al phe­nomen­on, also known as the aurora boreal­is, is a beau­ti­ful and awe-inspir­ing sight only vis­ible in a few select loc­a­tions world­wide.

According to Jerry Silfwer, CEO of the Northern Light Hotel, “We are thrilled to be able to offer our guests the oppor­tun­ity to exper­i­ence the Northern Lights in such an intim­ate and magic­al way. The trans­par­ent glass ceil­ings in our new rooms will provide an unpar­alleled view of this incred­ible nat­ur­al phe­nomen­on, and we can’t wait to share it with our guests.” ²As far as CEO quotes go, these are tired. Still, I did ask ChatGPT to include “excite­ment” and “pride.” I should have promp­ted some­thing more sub­stan­tial.

The hotel will also offer a range of oth­er amen­it­ies and activ­it­ies to help guests make the most of their Northern Lights exper­i­ence, includ­ing guided tours, pho­to­graphy work­shops, and hot tubs with night sky views. ³Obviously, ChatGPT made all of this up. I promp­ted noth­ing about any amen­it­ies. Still, this kind of out­side-the-box think­ing is not unreas­on­able: if it hasn’t already, the hotel should con­sider … Continue read­ing

“At the Northern Light Hotel, we are com­mit­ted to provid­ing our guests with an unfor­get­table and truly remark­able exper­i­ence,” Silfwer said. “We are con­fid­ent that our new rooms and range of activ­it­ies will make the Northern Light Hotel the premi­er des­tin­a­tion for any­one look­ing to see the aurora boreal­is in all its glory.” ⁴“If Jerry thinks that the Reykjavik press release is usable, what the hell is he think­ing?” Yes, the press release is very stand­ard. But with con­tact details and a boil­er­plate, it wouldn’t be … Continue read­ing

The Northern Light Hotel is loc­ated in the heart of Reykjavik, with­in easy reach of the city’s many attrac­tions and activ­it­ies. From the hotel, guests can eas­ily explore the vibrant cul­ture and his­tory of Iceland’s cap­it­al city and take day trips to see the country’s stun­ning nat­ur­al beauty. ⁵Few press releases are great. Many should be bet­ter, no doubt. But they’re not sup­posed to be works of art, either. We can com­plain about the qual­ity of the Reykjavik press release, but we must … Continue read­ing

The hotel’s man­age­ment team is excited to share this exper­i­ence with guests world­wide and looks for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­it­ors to the Northern Light Hotel. ⁶I would rate this first draft of the Reykjavik press release as being of mid-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­ity. As a first draft, it’s bet­ter than what I’d get from most juni­or PR exec­ut­ives and some … Continue read­ing

PR Resource: The AI Content Explosion

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

The AI Content Explosion for PR

Artificial intel­li­gence will impact every industry — and pub­lic rela­tions is no excep­tion. People are using AI tools to churn out con­tent at an explos­ive rate.

Many PR pro­fes­sion­als are explor­ing new and excit­ing AI tools to increase their out­put of cor­por­ate con­tent. ⁷Silfwer, J. (2022, December 10). The Reykjavik Press Release. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​r​e​y​k​j​a​v​i​k​-​p​r​e​s​s​-​r​e​l​e​a​se/

However, fol­low­ing suit with the AI con­tent explo­sion might not be the best idea.

• If your organ­isa­tion has a habit of pro­du­cing mediocre cor­por­ate con­tent, util­ising AI tools to pro­duce expo­nen­tially more mediocre con­tent won’t improve your pub­lic relations.

It’s reas­on­able to assume that emer­ging AI tools will enable lazy storytellers to churn out more con­tent en masse. Should your organ­isa­tion join this group?

The sheer volume of AI-gen­er­ated con­tent being pro­duced and pub­lished means that it will become increas­ingly dif­fi­cult for com­pan­ies to dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves and cap­ture the atten­tion of their tar­get audi­ence. This is espe­cially true in indus­tries where many organ­isa­tions are vying for atten­tion. ⁸Højris Bæk, D. (2023, January 11). Google is not against AI gen­er­ated con­tent and text any longer. Seo​.ai. https://​seo​.ai/​b​l​o​g​/​g​o​o​g​l​e​-​i​s​-​n​o​t​-​a​g​a​i​n​s​t​-​a​i​-​c​o​n​t​ent

In an increas­ingly arti­fi­cial world, PR pro­fes­sion­als must dare to think differently. 

• Public rela­tions is a zig­zag. When every­one is zig­ging, you’ll have to zag. You must stand out — or drown.

The rise of AI-gen­er­ated con­tent presents a counter-intu­it­ive oppor­tun­ity for pub­lic rela­tions. In a quant­it­at­ive world, your brand could go the oth­er way and focus on qual­ity (the prin­ciple of scarcity).

• Compete with the human touch. If a poten­tial cus­tom­er wants to con­tact your brand, don’t give them a robot. Invest human time. 
• Connect humans with each oth­er. When there are auto­mated mes­sages and inter­act­ive screens every­where you turn, let people come to your brand to con­nect with oth­er humans.
• Go for qual­ity over quant­ity. Many brands are likely to pro­duce vast amounts of AI-gen­er­ated con­tent. Handcrafted com­mu­nic­a­tion will become an artis­an­al rarity.

By focus­ing on qual­ity over quant­ity and safe­guard­ing the human touch in com­mu­nic­a­tions with stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics, organ­isa­tions can stand out from the crowd and make a real impact with their messaging.

Learn more: The AI Content Explosion

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR.

PR Resource: How AI Will Impact PR

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

The AI Revolution: Transforming Public Relations

There are sev­er­al ways in which arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) is likely to impact the pub­lic rela­tions (PR) industry. Some poten­tial examples include:

• More decision-level tasks, few­er pro­duc­tion-level tasks. AI-powered tools are used to auto­mate tasks such as media mon­it­or­ing, con­tent cre­ation, and social media man­age­ment. This could free up PR pro­fes­sion­als to focus on their work’s more stra­tegic and cre­at­ive aspects.
• Improved ana­lys­is and bet­ter strategies. The devel­op­ment of AI-powered sys­tems that can ana­lyse large amounts of data to identi­fy trends and insights that can inform PR strategy and decision-making.
• Using PR pro­fes­sion­als as AI train­ers. Using AI-powered chat­bots and vir­tu­al assist­ants to handle cus­tom­er inquir­ies and provide inform­a­tion to the pub­lic allows PR pro­fes­sion­als to scale PR training.
• Better pub­li­city through inter­con­nectiv­ity. The cre­ation of AI-powered plat­forms and net­works that can facil­it­ate con­nec­tions and col­lab­or­a­tions between PR pro­fes­sion­als, journ­al­ists, pub­lics, influ­en­cers, and oth­er crit­ic­al stake­hold­ers in the industry.
• Earlier detec­tions of poten­tial PR issues. AI-powered tools can help PR pro­fes­sion­als identi­fy and mit­ig­ate poten­tial crises by ana­lys­ing data and provid­ing early warn­ing sig­nals of poten­tial problems.
• Increased edit­or­i­al out­put. In organ­isa­tions where the com­mu­nic­a­tions depart­ment is driv­ing the con­tent strategy, PR pro­fes­sion­als will have plenty of tools for increas­ing both the qual­ity and the quant­ity of the out­put. ⁹Silfwer, J. (2023, March 20). The AI Content Explosion. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​a​i​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​-​e​x​p​l​o​s​i​on/

Overall, AI’s impact on the PR industry is likely to be sig­ni­fic­ant, with the poten­tial to revolu­tion­ise many aspects of how PR pro­fes­sion­als work and inter­act with stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics.

Read also: PR Beyond AI: A New Profession Emerging From the Rubble

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR.