The Impact of AI Content: Is It Enhancing or Harming Your Website?
The rise of AI content tools has been nothing short of remarkable. These innovative tools offer the ability to generate social media posts, blog articles, answer queries, and even create unique visuals. They have become invaluable when time is limited or inspiration is lacking. However, amidst the excitement, it's important to ask ourselves a crucial question: are these AI tools genuinely beneficial? Should we rely on them to produce our content? This blog post will explore the realm of AI content and emphasize the need for mindful usage.
The Soaring Popularity of AI-Generated Content
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as problem-solving, learning, reasoning, perception, and decision-making. Today, a wide range of AI tools in various shapes and sizes have flooded the market.
The widespread adoption of AI-powered content generators has made it incredibly convenient to produce content at scale within a short period. With just a few clicks, anyone can generate an article that may require some editing to align with their brand's tone and ensure factual accuracy.
However, amidst the ease and convenience offered by these AI tools, there is a critical aspect that we must not ignore. It comes as no surprise that using AI tools to create content often leads to the production of similar content across multiple sources. Unfortunately, this has adverse implications for search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Moreover, a more significant concern arises: the lack of diversity and inclusivity in AI-generated content. These AI systems are trained on existing content, which tends to exhibit biases. Furthermore, the content is often created by individuals who share similar perspectives. Let's delve deeper into this issue and explore potential solutions.
The Creation of an Echo Chamber
One of the primary concerns surrounding AI-generated content is its lack of originality and authenticity. While algorithms can mimic the style and tone of existing content, they cannot replicate the creativity and originality that real people bring.
AI-generated content often lacks depth, nuance, and originality, which can negatively impact a brand's credibility and reputation. Furthermore, relying heavily on AI-generated content can perpetuate stereotypes, biases, and exclusionary practices since algorithms tend to replicate existing patterns and preferences.
The ease with which AI content tools facilitate content creation has led to an abundance of similar content being produced. If everyone resorts to using the same AI tools, original thoughts and ideas become scarce. Consequently, an echo chamber is created, limiting our perspective and understanding of the world, leading to a lack of diversity and inclusivity.
AI Training Sets and Biases
The Large Language Models (LLMs) powering AI tools such as Google Bard, Microsoft's Bing assistant, and OpenAI's ChatGPT are trained on content extracted from the internet. While we might assume the internet is a diverse and inclusive space, it does have its questionable aspects.
Striving for a more inclusive world requires us to reconsider the suitability of training AIs using public internet forums. In recent years, this approach has resulted in AIs exhibiting racist and biased behavior.
Notable Examples
The usage of the internet's current content to train AIs presents numerous inclusion-related challenges. Consequently, the AIs themselves can become biased, whether it be racism, sexism, or ableism, as they learn from content that reflects these biases. Let's examine a few examples.
Amazon's AI Hiring Debacle
Consider Amazon's hiring AI, which was developed as the "holy grail" of recruitment, aimed at finding the most suitable candidates. Amazon trained the AI using ten years' worth of predominantly male resumes. While this is reflective of the overall tech industry, it led to the development of a sexist tool.
Amazon may not have intended to create a biased AI, but the biased nature of the data it was trained on resulted in skewed outcomes. AI will always exhibit biases if it is trained on biased data.
Issues with Image Creation
Another example of AI exhibiting bias is in image creation. When generating an image of a romantic couple holding hands, it is common to see predominantly white couples being depicted. In July 2021, Dall-E 2 updated its tool to "more accurately reflect the diversity of the world's population." However, it still struggles to produce diverse images and predominantly shows people of color only when prompted with the word "poor."
This lack of inclusivity is not limited to people of color but extends to the LGBTQI+ community. While adjustments can be made to AI systems, there is still a long way to go in reflecting the true diversity of our world. As Zoe Larkin (Levity) writes in a blog post on AI bias, "Unfortunately, AI is not immune to human prejudice. It can assist humans in making more impartial decisions, but only if we work diligently to ensure fairness in AI systems."
The Importance of Human Editing
While it may be acceptable to use AI tools as shortcuts to some extent, content creators often overlook the data that feeds these AIs. This contributes to the reinforcement of echo chambers, the production of similar content, and the creation of racist, non-inclusive, and biased imagery.
As content creators, it is crucial to be aware of the data and algorithms behind AI tools. This awareness ensures that the content we produce remains authentic, diverse, and inclusive while avoiding perpetuating stereotypes and exclusionary practices.
The Representativeness of Online Content
Instances such as Amazon's hiring tool and the skewed contributions to platforms like Wikipedia by mostly male editors highlight the lack of representativeness in online content. The majority of content available is written by English-speaking, mediocre, white cis men. However, this audience is not the only audience that exists. Voices from diverse backgrounds and experiences make up a small fraction of those being heard.
We need to improve our efforts to write and create more inclusive content to break the cycle of continuously repeating the same content. Doing so allows us to train future AIs on a more inclusive and diverse internet.
Enhancing Today's Content for the Future
Avoid being the person in a meeting who simply echoes what others say. Produce content that embodies your unique voice and appeals to the widest possible audience. These steps contribute to making the Internet a better place for everyone.
Tailor your communication appropriately to the audience you wish to reach. By writing inclusively, you play a significant role in creating content that will shape a more inclusive and diverse internet for future generations.
Recognizing Our Own Bias
It's not just AIs that exhibit bias; we all possess unconscious biases that we are actively striving to unlearn and overcome. These biases have led us to the current state of affairs. We must all make a conscious effort to write more inclusive content. Only by taking the time to do so can we shape today's internet and train future AI tools to employ inclusive and non-derogatory language.
This responsibility is significant, and change will not happen overnight. It requires ongoing dedication. Mistakes will inevitably occur along the way. However, by making a deliberate effort now to create diverse and inclusive content, we initiate a positive trajectory toward a better internet.
What Can We Do?
AI tools can certainly be utilized as part of the content creation process. However, it is crucial to perform a human edit before publishing. Evaluate the content produced by AI tools critically. Conduct fact-checks, make necessary adjustments, and ensure diversity and inclusivity. Identify any problematic content and improve it to a point where it resonates with a broader audience and aligns with your values.
Tips for Creating More Inclusive Content
Starting the journey toward more inclusive content creation can be challenging, but it's a responsibility we all share. At Media Masters Plus+, our web design company, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive content that resonates with a broad audience. We offer a range of services including web design, e-commerce development using Shopify, and SEO services. By utilizing AI tools responsibly, conducting human edits, and prioritizing diversity and inclusivity, we can shape a better internet and train future AI systems on more inclusive and non-derogatory language. Let's work together to make the web a more inclusive and welcoming space for all.
With small steps in the right direction, we can collectively work toward making the web and the world a more inclusive and diverse place for future generations and future AI systems.