AI-Generated Content—What Marketers Need to Know

Written content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is currently all the rage. At the very least, AI-generated content would appear to be a huge time saver and a great way to access a “talent” that you might not inately possess—in this case, the ability to write well.

But some media outlets, such as Business Insider, and social forums, such as Twitter and Chat GPT creator OpenAI’s own online users’ forum, are reporting that AI-generated content apps, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, might be losing its edge.

“I’ve been using Chat GPT for quite a while now, and I’ve been a GPT Plus user since GPT-4 was released,” wrote one user on OpenAi’s forum. “Over the past few days, it seems like GPT-4 is struggling to do things it did well previously.”

Whether or not AI is becoming less skilled as a writer as time passes is a debate that’s very much up for grabs. However, there are some hard facts about AI-generated content that, if you are using it for marketing, you absolutely should know and understand before you go any further. Check out these five truths about AI from the public relations communication company Cision that you’ll want to keep in mind:

1) Right now, as the law stands, AI-generated content can’t be copyrighted because a human being didn’t directly produce it. It instantly enters what’s known as the public domain—that is, anyone can reproduce it. So, if AI writes a blog article for your website, the rights to it belong to everyone, and anyone can use it. It will not be unique to you or your company.

2) Ironically, especially when you consider fact number one above, AI pulls from existing text to create its own text. The text it pulls from very well could be copyrighted material, as it was most likely written by human beings. Essentially, it could be violating copyright laws, even though what it ultimately generates isn’t copyrighted. As such, the original writers it pulled its material from to generate its own content could, theoretically, come after you and your company on legal grounds of copyright infringement. According to Cision, such law suits have already been filed.

3) Because AI isn’t a very “sensitive” thinker (as humans can be), its artificial judgment is based solely on what it has been taught. It only knows what it’s been “fed.” That information can be askew, and as such, it can produce further content that is misleading, biased, and downright false.

4) Because of the scrutiny that already exists online regarding “fake news,” your company could be harshly judged—perhaps wrongly so—due to AI content, and your brand could be forever damaged.

5) Lastly, because the sources of AI content can be so hard to pin down,  Cision suggests that AI could create an undercurrent of distrust, which might more broadly hurt public relations and other forms of media and communications in general.

It’ll take a while for legislation to catch up to AI to create boundaries and laws in regards to its use, including the creation of content. As AI might currently be operating in its own wild, wild west for now, you might personally need to step up as your company’s sheriff to safeguard that your use and your business’s use of AI-generated content doesn’t cross any legal or ethical lines.