When you use AI to REPLACE the human element, things break. A gaming site with a 22-year reputation let its writers go, published reviews by an AI “writer” – and Metacritic pulled the review and cut ties with the site.
Asking AI to “write my emails for me” is the same move on a smaller scale. Your readers WILL notice: the emails start sounding generic, replies dry up, sales slow down.
Use AI to speed up the parts that DON’T require your voice – while YOU remain the strategist, the storyteller, and the creative engine.
I recently read an email from a fellow copywriter, Lukas Resheske, that stopped me cold.
In his email, Lukas told the story of a website called Videogamer.com…
A site with a 22-year reputation in the gaming industry.
Being a gamer myself, this site was very familiar to me.
It always had solid content, real writers, insightful reviews, and a lot of trust when it comes to sharing opinions about video games.
Free book + AI assistant
Turn the Leads Already Joining Your List Into Buyers – Faster
The Rapid Lead Activator reveals the psychology-based framework I use to write welcome sequences that sell – without hype. Normally $9.99 on Amazon, yours free. Plus a bonus AI assistant that writes your first 5 welcome emails for you – in minutes, not days.
Send Me the Rapid Lead Activator →What happened to VideoGamer?
Here’s what happened:
The site was sold to a company called Clickout Media.
Staff were let go soon after (Press Gazette reported up to 20 people across the group’s gaming sites)…
Then, a few months later, “new writers” appeared on the site.
One of them – a guy named “Brian Merrygold” – started publishing reviews.
Including a review of Resident Evil Requiem that showed up on Metacritic.
(I’ve been playing this game, by the way… It’s EXCELLENT, especially if you’re a Resident Evil fan!)
There was only one problem:
Brian wasn’t real!
“He” had a suspicious AI-looking headshot…
An obviously AI-generated bio…
And – shocker –… AI-generated articles, too.
In fact, ALL of them were AI-generated.
But the biggest problem?
At the top of EVERY article on the site, there was this disclaimer:
“You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games…”
Yeah…….
Obvious bullshyte right there.
And guess what?
A lot of other people also noticed. Influential people.
And so… Metacritic pulled the review and cut ties with Videogamer.com.
22 years of reputation…
Wrecked in a matter of weeks.
Is AI the problem?
Now look…
I’m not telling you this story to pile on the “AI is bad” narrative.
You know I don’t believe that.
I mean…
I’ve used AI to build two products, audit a $40K ad campaign, and construct a custom WordPress plugin without writing a line of code!
(More on where I think this is all going: will AI replace copywriters?)
I’m telling you this story because it perfectly illustrates something I keep coming back to:
When you use AI to REPLACE the human element… things break.
But when you use it as a tool to make the human part BETTER?
That’s where the magic is!
And here’s where the company that bought Videogamer.com made a strategic mistake:
It didn’t use AI to make their writers better…
It used it to eliminate their writers entirely.
And the result was… predictable.
Slop.
Fake bylines.
And serious reputational damage.
Well deserved, I might add.
What does this mean for your emails?
Now…
Take a moment and think about this in the context of YOUR business:
If you take AI and say something like “write my emails for me”…
…you’re doing the same thing Clickout Media did!
You’re replacing the human element that your audience actually trusts.
And your readers WILL notice.
Maybe not today…
Maybe not next week…
But eventually, the emails start sounding generic…
Replies dry up…
Sales slow down…
And your list quietly forgets you exist.
That’s what happened to Videogamer.com… because its parent company got greedy.
So don’t let it happen to you, too.
The other path: AI as the tool, you as the writer
Choose a different path.
One where you use AI to speed up the parts that DON’T require your voice…
While YOU remain the strategist, the storyteller, and the creative engine.
Where the AI coaches you on structure and hooks and framing…
But the ideas, the personality, and the conviction are 100% yours.
That’s the path I’ve been building my entire system around.
(If you’re still deciding how much of the writing to hand over, start with should AI write your emails?)
And if you’d rather learn to write emails that sell yourself, my course Rainmaker Email Mastery is where I teach it.
Free book + AI assistant
Turn the Leads Already Joining Your List Into Buyers – Faster
The Rapid Lead Activator reveals the psychology-based framework I use to write welcome sequences that sell – without hype. Normally $9.99 on Amazon, yours free. Plus a bonus AI assistant that writes your first 5 welcome emails for you – in minutes, not days.
Send Me the Rapid Lead Activator →-Csaba
P.S. – Credit to Lukas Resheske for the original reporting on this.
