How to use AI-generated images, copy and other products smartly and ethically
There is a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence, especially content-generation tools that help businesses quickly produce professional-quality images, videos, writing, and voice-overs. But be careful: using AI-generated content can become a major headache and even a legal risk, especially for businesses.
Studies show that 72% of businesses use AI. With more and more organisations adopting AI into their operations, let’s look at what you should know to use AI-generated content ethically.
AI content is produced by a specific type of artificial intelligence called “generative AI” or “transformer AI”. These differ from other types of AI, such as the AI that removes spam messages from your email. Generative AI can produce text, images, videos, and voice from scratch with just a few natural-language sentences.
You don’t need to be an engineer or programmer to use tools like Gemini, Claude, Meta Vibes, ElevenLabs, and ChatGPT. You just need an idea, some patience, and a little money to pay for more tokens once your free allocation runs out. But before using that content, you should consider some important implications.
1. Not everyone likes AI content
AI content is very polarising at the moment. Some people love AI content, others hate it. Some think it is very original and interesting; others consider it bland and repetitive. Before using AI content, think about your customers and your goals. Who are you trying to reach, and what do they care about? People can respond very unfavourably to AI content, which will hurt your brand and reputation with them. Think carefully about what you use and why.
2. Don’t hide AI content
It is tempting to use AI-generated content but not label it as such. This is risky for several reasons. The simplest is trust: if someone enjoys your content and then realises it’s AI-generated, they may think your business is trying to deceive them. Some social media sites might block your account if you neglect to declare you used AI content. Being upfront and honest is better. Those who don’t care won’t mind, and those who do won’t feel cheated.
3. Use AI content as a baseline
AI content can help your team find inspiration, and convey and refine your ideas. Let’s say you want a logo for your company. Use AI to generate different ideas, refining them until you have something that reflects your vision for your brand. Then, hire a designer to create the final logo, using your AI generated ideas as inspiration. Another example is writing content for your social media accounts. Use the AI to generate ideas and paragraphs, but assemble and edit the writing yourself to reflect your brand voice.
4. Licensed content services are lower risk
There are many AI services, not all of which play by the same rules. You can generate an image on ChatGPT or Grok, but you might not be able to reuse it commercially. There are also circumstances where using stock art or ready-made templates is better. Ideally, you want a service that offers both pre-made licensed content and AI-generation services, such as Canva or Shutterstock. These services give access to large and legal content libraries, as well as content generators, for flat monthly fees. Canva also offers free, yet powerful, image editing software called Affinity.
5. Create icons, decorations, and non-representational art
Not all AI-generated content are photos or illustrations. AI can also create things like icons, patterns, decorations, and elaborate designs like infographics and presentations. You can save a lot of time by generating such art, especially for things like websites and presentations. AI is also good at suggesting colour schemes or fixing existing pictures by removing elements or extending backgrounds. It can make nice video transitions and generate short boilerplate copy for your documents. These types of elements are less controversial and less likely to violate copyright.
6. Beware of copyright and deepfakes
Some AI platforms let you generate content featuring copyrighted characters, celebrities, and established brands. A few even let you create deepfakes that impersonate specific people. These might be funny and entertaining, but they are a real minefield if you want to protect your interests and avoid possible legal issues. There are also laws that restrict such content; in South Africa, you can be criminally charged or sued for creating deepfakes. Only use AI content that is original and won’t cause harm to others.
Generative AI can help you create content that suits your brand and vision. Just play by the rules: be transparent, don’t rip off other brands or copyrights, and check the terms and conditions of a service to see what you can and cannot do with content generated on that site.
