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 about large lan­guage mod­els 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.

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 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

My take?

The press release is quite bland, sure. Then again, most human-writ­ten press releases are quite bland, too.

And, to be fair, any faults in this press release could eas­ily be attrib­uted to the prompt itself.

But all of that is neither here nor there at this point, because it won’t be long before PR pro­fes­sion­als can churn out viable press releases faster than any­one could ask for them.

Now, I know the world isn’t ask­ing for more cor­por­ate con­tent.
But here it comes anyway.