With new kinds of AI popping up almost every day in different fields of work, it’s almost impossible to completely disregard their benefits and usefulness in everyday life. To begin with, They help you supercharge most of your processes and get things done much faster than if you would have to do it manually yourself.
Additionally, most AI comes with certain limitations, so you automatically have to step in and do some parts yourself as well – this helps contribute to a creative collaboration where you don’t have to do everything yourself while also not completely depending on AI to get all your tasks done.
In such an environment, there can often be a rising question of ethics and morals, especially when it comes to creating content for customers and clients. In this blog, we’re going to be highlighting the ethical dilemma that some creators face when using AI-generated images for social media marketing and if these assumptions truly need to be a cause for worry.
Without further ado, let’s get right into it.
1. Creativity can turn into laziness
When it comes to using AI for generating any content – whether it’s visual or written, the primary question that comes into play is whether or not this is ethical from a creative point of view.
What this means is that very often, creators take advantage of AI and use it as a content mill to generate fluff and not add any real value to the creations they’re putting out, thereby adding to the million other repetitive posts that are already available online.
Making customers believe that a post or campaign that you put out is created by you when in reality, it’s nothing but something that’s been generated by AI can be misleading and also unethical, especially if you have a loyal customer base that trusts your product or service to prioritize them and their needs.
Instead of abusing the speed and boost in productivity that comes with AI-generated images and content, marketers should take advantage of the process by bringing in their creativity and brand flavor while using AI-generated visuals and content as a base.
This way, you aren’t being lazy by simply putting out content that you never created to begin with, but you’re simply using AI as a tool that speeds up your process while putting in the effort to edit, enhance, and perfect the images, visuals, and content that’s been generated by AI.
This way, your content will stand out from the rest while also not taking as long as it would’ve taken you to create it without the help of AI.
2. Privacy can be easily breached
It’s important to remember that AI-generated images are created by tools or bots that collect information from all across the internet and put it together – very often, this may also end up resembling images of real human beings who look that way in reality.
In such a case, it can be compromising to the company and a breach of privacy to use images that closely resemble a real person rather than a fake image of a non-existent person.
That’s why it’s important always to make sure that marketers and creators should never completely rely on AI to create the perfect images but should always go the extra mile to edit or manipulate those images and make them truly unique. This will also ensure that you don’t end up using images already used by other brands or companies.
3. Authenticity can be compromised
At the end of the day, you owe your customers transparency in everything that you do and sell. You also owe them the effort you put into creating a brand, service, or product that they can be proud to own or use without feeling like their loyalty is being taken for granted.
That’s why it’s important not to be sloppy with the marketing content and visuals that you put out there into the world since your customers are going to be ambassadors for your product only if you’re able to build the conviction that your product is worth their loyalty.
Always be sure to use unique, high-quality visuals that don’t resemble basic stock photo images that customers and competitors can quickly identify and dislike. Having stock images and visuals has long been frowned upon simply because it decreases brand value by making it look like a brand or service doesn’t care enough to go through the effort to create its content from scratch.
It’s important to create unique visuals, especially if using a text-to-image generator AI tool. They should not only stand out in a sea of other images online but will also show your customers that you’re going the extra mile to create a variety of content for them since you care about their experience as well.
How to balance creativity and authenticity
Two factors that are often compromised by companies that make use of AI-generated visuals are creativity and authenticity. Creativity begins to take a backseat when all your visuals are delivered to you in no time, with little to no effort – this, in turn, will affect the quality of the content that you put out since AI-generated visuals are only an amalgamation of the content that already exists on the internet.
Authenticity is compromised when visuals are simply generated and used, especially when they aren’t modified or altered to suit a particular campaign or post.
However, if AI-generated visuals are used responsibly by giving extra attention to the small details while also ensuring that you aren’t just putting out visuals that already exist back on the internet, then you’ll be able to perfectly make the most of AI while not compromising on your brand’s identity and integrity.
What’s more, you’ll be able to create more in less time while also adapting to the changing market trends and target audiences.
