Hearts & Minds: Beware he headlong rush into ai slop

On New Year’s Eve, thousands of people turned up in Birmingham’s Centenary Square expecting a fireworks display. There wasn’t one. The ‘spectacular midnight show’ had been advertised by AI-generated news articles and then spread by legitimate channels, and people believed it. This was another example of ‘AI slop’, one that in this case did cause real-world havoc. There are numerous others. At least four of the top 20 most-viewed images on Facebook in the US last year were created by AI. They’re not deliberately false pictures of people – that’s deepfake. This is amateur content produced by AI. It’s low quality, hence slop. It’s turning up everywhere, from CVs to school and university essays to corporate material, in words and in still and moving pictures. The temptation to ask AI to do the work is strong. It saves time and effort, it’s reasonably accurate and on one level, does the job. What’s not to like?

Don’t go there. The language is bland and repetitive, using the same generic descriptions. There’s no flair. The flow is poor and the text jumps around, often in a chaotic, disorderly fashion – as if it’s been selected at random and not properly selected and prioritised. It seems rehashed, offering nothing that is new or striking. An AI image lacks detail, and the lighting can be odd. But how to avoid your company falling into the AI trap? Accept that as appealing as it is, using AI willy-nilly and casually is bad and ensure everyone in comms knows that to be the case. It has a role as a tool, but not as a panacea. AI should be used wisely, monitored by human beings, using human eyes and brains. Inject your copy with personal stories, with actual examples. Use emotion. Speak, write and view as humans do, not as a machine supposes we do. Where possible, employ interactive media. Where possible and if appropriate, integrate visuals and videos, to give the viewer a dynamic, memorable experience. 

It takes effort, crafting original content. Not everyone can do it. Use AI as a guide, but only that. What you want to achieve for your brand, in what you’re producing, should be unique. Get that right and the time invested is rewarded: the result will be far better than the mechanical, dull alternative. Lest there be any doubt, this was not written using AI. Honest.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.