The Reykjavik Press Release — ChatGPT

“Every once in a while I’ll sit down with a jug of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Advil and dig through old press releases to see if PR agen­cies have learned how to write.”
— Mark Ragan

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. It’s a con­ver­sa­tion starter as good as any, I think.

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 that will 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,” today’s date, and sug­gest a descript­ive headline.

The Reykjavik Press Release

3 – 5 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 that is only vis­ible in a few select loc­a­tions around the world.

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 views of the night sky. 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?” The press release is very stand­ard, yes. 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, as well as 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 from around the world and looks for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­it­ors to the Northern Light Hotel. ⁶I would rate this first draft of the Reykjavik press release at mid-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­ity. As a first draft, it’s bet­ter than what I’d get from most juni­or PR exec­ut­ives and some mid-level … Continue read­ing

Read also: AI & PR: Beware the Artificial Content Explosion

PR Resource: How AI Will Impact PR

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 high-level tasks, less low-level. The use of AI-powered tools 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 crisis situ­ations 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 (see also arti­fi­cial con­tent explo­sion).

Overall, the impact of AI on the PR industry is likely to be sig­ni­fic­ant, with the poten­tial to revolu­tion­ise many aspects of how PR pro­fes­sion­als work and inter­act with their audi­ences.

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

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