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The Traveling Fool
Traveling off the tourist path. Talking about those places most tourists just don't know about because, well, nobody ever told them. Also travel tips and news about travel and tourism to make your trip a little easier, cheaper and more memorable.
The Traveling Fool
Is AI Changing the Way We Travel for the Worse?
Is artificial intelligence ruining travel writing? Join me, Bob Bales, on The Traveling Fool Podcast as I confront the relentless invasion of AI in the travel industry. AI-generated content is drowning out authentic voices, overshadowing the unique perspectives of independent travel bloggers and personal websites. Drawing from my own journey as a ghostwriter, I highlight how AI's presence has weakened the richness of personalized biographies.
Stay with me until the end for a practical tip that'll help you save big on your airfares. Imagine scoring a round trip from Houston to Cancun for just $32 by dedicating a few minutes each day to hunt for flight deals. Learn how setting flexible search parameters can open up a world of affordable travel possibilities. Make sure to catch this episode for more tips on how to make your travel dreams a reality without breaking the bank. Safe travels and happy savings!
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Hi, my name is Bob Bales and this is the Traveling Fool Podcast, and today we're going to talk about a subject that has just been really bugging me. I want you to stay tuned to the very end of the podcast because I'm going to give you a really good tip on how to save big on airfares Absolutely free, not going to cost you a penny. So let's get started. Alright, let's get into this Artificial intelligence, especially as it relates to travel writing, but let's just talk about it in general and we'll talk about some specific travel writing problems with it.
Speaker 1:I absolutely despise artificial intelligence and AI. Yes, it has its places If you want to do massive computing problems and solve mathematical equations that would take 500 years in a split second, yeah, okay, fine, and there are some other valid uses for it, but I think it's being overused way too much. And artificial intelligence or they've used artificial intelligence to pretty much decimate travel blogs and independent sites on the internet. And let me tell you how. With all the new Google updates coming out, you type in a search on Google and they give you answers to your queries based on AI, which means artificial intelligence, curated info mostly from just a few of the big sites. That's all you're seeing. Google AI is also rolling out an AI trip planning tool, which will hurt all kinds of industries and companies Now, where, in the past, content was written using keywords based on what people were searching for and writers were writing content based on first-hand experience. All of that is gone. You will likely never see those type articles, since they will be buried on page 20 of Google, if at all. So let's think about this. Ai generates an article from articles and info that are already circulating on the Internet, so if the articles and info on the Internet are being written by AI, then that is where you get all kinds of inaccurate and just plain wrong information. It's just feeding upon itself.
Speaker 1:I used to do some work as a ghostwriter for a company that writes people's biographies. It was fun. It entailed interviewing people about their lives, either in person or by Zoom calls, and then writing their story using their words, while trying to capture their storytelling tone. It would take several interviews and then editing and possibly rewriting portions until the client was happy before. The company would then turn it into a printed book that they could pass down to their children, grandchildren, or, in some cases, they even sold them. That company now uses AI, where the person answers questions on a printed form and then their magic AI turns it into a biography. The result is nowhere near the quality it used to be and many, including myself, have opted to just no longer be associated with that company.
Speaker 1:Ai may be able to summarize and put together sentences, but it cannot impart the passion of the writer or the first-hand knowledge of what the writer experienced. What you get is a sanitized, uninspiring, bland and generic article that doesn't give the reader any insight as to what the writer is trying to get across. Just imagine for a second if any of the books and articles you read in the past years were written by AI. How could AI capture the personal experiences of Hemingway or the legal thrillers of John Grisham or the unsettling horror of Stephen King King? When it comes to travel writing, we would have never had On the Road by Jack Chirac or the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Thoreau, the written word by Hemingway and others, to include the many National Geographic articles. Instilled in me as a young man a dream about traveling to faraway places so I could see and experience those things that I read about. It was the vivid pictures painted by the writer that allowed me to see what they saw and I could almost smell the surrounding area. I laughed at their funny stories and I was enthralled by their ability to take me on their journey. I couldn't wait to get older so I could experience all the things they did.
Speaker 1:Now there are a lot of good writers and bloggers out there that unfortunately just never get much exposure and with all these latest Google updates, a lot of their articles that they put on their personal websites and blogs they just never get seen. The travel blogging industry is full of really good travel bloggers and writers that delve into destinations. They tell a good story, they cover places from well-known destinations to the less traveled, they give tips on places to visit the surrounding area and much, much more. Unfortunately, you will probably never read their blogs. The main reason is that articles just may not show up on Google's front page for the term you're searching for the larger sites. Well, they pay a lot of money so you can see their articles when you type in places to visit near Memphis or best things to do in Houston on the weekend or day trips out of Nashville. It's called SEO Search Engine Optimization and it changes monthly the rules of what Google is looking for and how to do keyword research and all this stuff. It's constantly changing and a lot of these large companies. They employ a lot of people and pay a lot of money to play around with search engines so that they can get their stuff seen. So no matter what you type in there, you get the same results main articles showing up from the same main publishers all the time.
Speaker 1:And now, with AI, it's being used by people to write articles to rank high in Google. Most are just generic, plain articles with very little value in anything new. Plus, none of them are written by a person who actually went there. Nobody experienced that location. They can't tell you what they saw or experienced. Ai pulls from a myriad of info that's already just circulating around on the internet and then just regurgitates. It compiles a new article based on what it finds. When you get a chance to do something like this type in cheapest Caribbean destinations, and you do that in two or three AI generators and you will get basically the same info, just rewritten. But it's all the same stuff. But it's all the same stuff, whether it's best restaurants, best hotels, free things to do in a blank place, places to visit in wherever. All generic, all the same info, all AI generated. Now you will see some of these titles actually written by someone that visited the locations listed. The reason the title is written that way? Well simple you want to please the Google gods, so hopefully someone will read your article and visit your website.
Speaker 1:Having said that, with the advent of AI, more and more articles online and even print, are being written using AI. It's really a fairly simple thing to do Using various websites and software. You just do a search for top keywords that get a lot of search volume. For a subject say steakhouses in Houston, texas, that has a pretty large monthly search volume and relatively low competition, there's not a lot of people trying to write articles about that. So then you just go to an AI generator, have it write an article about the best steakhouses in Houston Texas, tell the AI generator how many words you want to use and, when it's done, go back and stuff it with related keywords and voila, you're an expert. The article gets people searching Google for that term to click on.
Speaker 1:Give you an example I did just that. It took me about 30 seconds. I got 800 word article that starts out with the headline Savoring Excellence the best steakhouses in Houston, texas. That sounds pretty enticing, doesn't it? So let's see what they say. I'll just read you the first paragraph.
Speaker 1:When it comes to indulging in the perfectly cooked steak, houston, texas stands out as a carnivorous paradise. The city is home to a myriad of steakhouses, each offering a unique blend of flavors, ambiance and culinary expertise, whether you're a seasoned steak enthusiast or a first-time visitor, here are some of the best steakhouses in Houston that promise a delectable journey into the world of prime cuts and fine dining and their little aegidoria went on the list. Eight or ten of the popular steakhouses in Houston that everybody else lists the same eight or ten with the same basic info. So there's really no need to actually travel anywhere. You can just write about it using AI. There's no need to visit a restaurant. Tell people what your experience was. Just use AI and be the expert.
Speaker 1:You can write an expert opinion article on just about anything. Want to sound like an authority on parenting, cooking, travel, be a security expert or any other subject? Just use AI and pawn it off as your own. Unfortunately, there are a lot of sites, and some really, really big and popular ones, that are doing just that, and people reading those articles think it's being written by an actual person that has some kind of experience with the subject matter. There are individual bloggers and writers out there that are using AI in an attempt to solve writer's block or to try and compete in the search engine game. Sometimes it works and people are making money by pushing out AI-generated content, but none of it is really that helpful to anyone, just more generic info for AI to use and keep regurgitating.
Speaker 1:Here's another thing With current technology, you can clone yourself into a lifelike avatar. There are programs out there. Doesn't cost much money. You can set this entire system up for less than $500. And probably a lot less than that but you can create a lifelike avatar of yourself and you can input the topic that you want to write about and AI will produce a video of you speaking. So YouTube or Facebook videos can be produced with you the authority talking, selling a product or course or anything at all all made completely by AI.
Speaker 1:Inspiring, isn't it? Maybe I should go on to be an expert about interstellar travel. That'd be interesting, wouldn't it? With AI invading everything, we're raising a generation of idiots. There's no more school reports on the causes of World War I or the history and culture of the Plains Indians. Instead, just ask AI to write an 800-word essay and turn it in. Why the need to ever read a book or write anything original when AI can just churn out nonsense? Why the need to ever read a book or write anything original when AI can just churn out nonsense?
Speaker 1:As you can tell by now, I have very little use for AI when it comes to writing articles, and I'm glad it wasn't around when I was young and reading books that took me to faraway places. Or that monthly National Geographic that told me about the Blues Trail in Mississippi, or the tribes of the Amazon. Or afoot in roadless Nepal, where a writer undertakes a survey for the UN at a time when foreigners rarely visited Nepal and very few ever left the capital. And later on I had the opportunity to visit Nepal twice and see some of those things I read about. But unfortunately the genie's out of the bottle. I predict it'll only get worse. I just choose not to participate in it or waste my time consuming the generic drivel being produced. Believe it or not, there are still good writers out there that tell a good story. It just takes some effort to find them. When you do, let them know you read their articles, support them by following them, sharing their articles, so they can keep telling the stories that will inspire future generations to travel and visit those places they read about. So that's it for my rant, for today.
Speaker 1:Now, but before I go, here's the tip I promised you. One of the biggest expenses in traveling is what the air travel involved, unless you do road trips, which I love doing road trips, but it's kind of hard to do a road trip if you're going to a Caribbean island. So here's a good tip when looking for flights, go to the website kayakcom, forward, slash, explore. Kayakcom is a big search engine for travel and hotels and all kinds of stuff, and they have that explore button. When you do that, you'll see a search bar at the top where you can put in your departure city or airport. In the next block you put in the destination I'm having a hard time talking. Here Must be all that rum I drank. I'm having a hard time talking. Here Must be all that rum I drank.
Speaker 1:In the next block, you put in the destination, but put it and set it to where it says anywhere. And in the travel date block, set it for any time, slash any duration. Now what that's going to do is it's going to search you leaving a certain airport, going anywhere anytime for the next six months. On the left-hand side there are options for how many stops you want to make. I want a nonstop flight. One stop, two stops. It doesn't matter how many stops. Whatever. Set your budget. You can type in the maximum budget you want to spend. You'd also put in there your flight duration and the type of destination.
Speaker 1:So, as I was planning this out, I did a little research and it only takes a couple of minutes to do this. So I searched for departing out of Houston Texas, any stops, any budget, any duration and beach destinations, because I do love being a good beach. Now the search appears on a world map and you can move it around and zoom in. And if you zoom in, like some of the smaller islands, you'll get airfares, whereas if it's zoomed all the way out, you won't see any airfares listed. So when you get to smaller locations, just zoom in a little bit and you'll see a bunch of airfares listed. So when you get to like smaller locations, just zoom in a little bit and you'll see a bunch of airfares pop up.
Speaker 1:Now, when I did that I got results, and all of these are for round-trip flights on various airlines. I got round-trip flights Houston to Fort Lauderdale, florida, for $85 round-trip. I could go to Aruba for $298. Valencia, spain, for $521. Phuket, thailand, for $895. I've been there, it's beautiful. Honolulu for $362. And all of these are round trips. And there was a whole lot more, and these are just beach destinations.
Speaker 1:You can leave that section blank too and just say I want to go anywhere anytime for no more than $400. And just see what pops up. It only takes two or three minutes to do it. I search daily just so I can see what's out there and, believe it or not, I have found flights from Houston to Cancun for $32 round trip. Lord have mercy. It cost me $32 to drive downtown Houston and park for the day, almost. So that's one little tip that you can use to save money for airfares. It only takes a couple of minutes. Do some exploration. You might just discover a really cool destination you want to go visit. So I'll give you another tip on the next episode that'll help you save some more airfare. Until then, this has been Bob Bales, the Traveling Fool, and safe travels to you. Take care, thank you, you.
