Unbeknownst to many customers, the use of augmented AI (artificial intelligence) is already pervasive throughout the marketing suite. A recent AuthorityHacker AI survey, The State of AI in the Online Marketing Industry: 2023 Report, polled 3,812 digital marketers and found that 85.1% of marketers are using AI for article writing. 

The potential outcomes for businesses can be costly and serious. 

Misuse of AI: a real-world digital marketing example

An online publication promising a feature article in its upcoming issue approached one of our clients. It was a paid feature. The client agreed, paid the publication in full, and then handed the process over to my digital marketing agency to manage. 

The feature article preparation included:  

• Filling in a lengthy Google Doc of detailed questions about the client and his successful business
• Listing three relevant backlinks to the client’s website pages
• Including any SEO (search engine optimization) keywords in the Google Doc
• Providing a detailed quote from the client for the article

It did not include any contact with a writer. 

Once these items were submitted, the completed feature article draft was immediately returned for review within 24 hours. The accompanying email instructed the client to make only minor changes to the draft and send it back for publication. 

The article was poorly written and the word choice unusual. So, our agency decided to run the draft through GPTZero, an AI-detection software. Not surprisingly, the article was determined to have a 100% probability of being written by AI. 

Signs of AI-generated content

It was easy to determine that the publication had used AI for the feature article. Here are just a few of the red flags: 

• The article preparation did not include an interview with a writer.
• The contract did not specify multiple rounds of revisions or any type of collaborative process.
• The client did more work than the publication, e.g., completing an extensive Google Doc with elaborate questions that required long, written answers—perfect for AI.
• The word choices were bizarre.
• There was no real structure to the paragraphs or flow to the article. 
• The turnaround time was too fast. 

How can a business protect itself from AI-generated content? 

In the case of our client, the publication crossed the line in its use of AI because the feature article did not have human authorship. We really like the framework outlined by Paul Roetzer of the Marketing AI Institute on a recent Social Media Marketing podcast, “Adopting AI for Business: Where to Begin.” Roetzer delineates three uses of AI for content, which are acceptable: ideation, summarization and transcription. The use of AI for authorship is not. And, in our example, the use of AI was never disclosed, so zero transparency.

We recommend that when your business signs an agreement for content creation, insist on specific contractual guardrails for AI. For example in the final deliverables, if content is flagged as having an 80% or more probability of being written by AI, it should be rewritten by a human writer at no additional cost to you. As a rule of thumb, we suggest 80% because AI is now an embedded feature across many digital marketing tools and platforms. Augmented AI is tough to avoid. It is worth noting that plenty of clients are specifying that AI cannot be used at all to create content that fulfills a contract. 

For AI-generated or enhanced images, ask the agency or vendor to specify the AI model that was utilized and to what extent. Request a summary of the prompts put into the AI model, and ask that when using the image, the attribution specifies the creative was AI-generated. Know also that some social networks are already asking whether ad creatives have been “digitally created or altered.” 

Most importantly, confront the use of AI in digital marketing head-on; don’t avoid the conversation with your agency or vendor. Legally, AI-generated content is not copyright-protected. According to the US Copyright Office, “When an AI technology determines the expressive elements of its output, the generated material is not the product of human authorship. As a result, that material is not protected by copyright and must be disclaimed in a registration application.” 

So, if your counterparty glosses over the issue of content authorship, beware. You may inadvertently purchase AI-generated creatives or written work that are technically in the public domain, and that is not an AI marketing lesson you want to learn.