The Irony of OpenAI Hiring A Content Strategist
AI eats jobs, they said. And now? It’s hiring.
Recently, OpenAI posted a role for a Content Strategist to help shape the voice of ChatGPT.com. Yes, the same tool that millions of people use to draft emails, scripts, blogs, and posts is now looking for a human to fix its tone and keep it relatable.
Irony level: chef’s kiss.
Why Does an AI Need a Human Voice?
The posting raised eyebrows for one simple reason: if ChatGPT is so good at writing, why does it need someone to write for it?
The answer is in the nuance. AI can generate words. Lots of them. But voice — that tricky blend of tone, context, and cultural awareness — isn’t something you can brute-force with a prompt.
Humans don’t just write. We know when to hold back. When to be funny, and when to be sincere. When a sentence needs bite, and when it needs heart. AI can imitate that, but it doesn’t always feel it.
That gap is where strategy lives.
The Parrot Problem
Think of AI as a very confident parrot. It can repeat patterns beautifully, sometimes even inventively. But it doesn’t know if it’s squawking in the wrong room.
A content strategist makes sure the parrot isn’t just loud — it’s saying the right thing, in the right way, to the right people.
That means:
Setting boundaries on tone (playful vs. professional).
Making sure outputs align with brand identity.
Managing the expectations of readers who may not want to feel like they’re reading machine-made text.
Humans, Rehired by AI
There’s a delicious irony in the job listing: the very technology pitched as a replacement for content roles is now creating new ones.
Not for “first draft copywriter,” but for higher-order thinking:
Editors. Who refine and humanise machine drafts.
Strategists. Who define how AI should sound.
Ethicists. Who monitor bias, misinformation, and guardrails.
The work shifts from creating every sentence to orchestrating how sentences are made and used. It’s less “ghostwriter” and more “voice coach.”
The Bigger Lesson
If the world’s most advanced writing machine still needs a human strategist, maybe the real takeaway is this: AI doesn’t replace expertise, it reconfigures it.
Instead of worrying that AI will eat every content role, we should notice how the most valuable roles now move up the stack. Less grunt work, more big-picture direction. Less typing, more curating.
AI may handle the volume. But humans will always own the vibe.
So, Who Gets the Job?
The strategist OpenAI hires won’t just be polishing sentences. They’ll be managing a paradox: helping an AI sound more human, while reminding humans they’re talking to an AI.
It’s part brand management, part UX design, part therapy.
And honestly? It might just be the most future-proof creative job out there.
The Bottom Line
The next time someone says, “AI is replacing all the writers,” point them here.
Because when ChatGPT itself is hiring humans to wrangle its tone, it’s proof of a bigger truth: AI can generate. But only humans can guide.
Or, to put it in parrot terms: AI talks a lot. It still needs us to make sure it sings the right song.
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