AI Usage in Marketing: 'Disclosure Responsible, Ethical & Expected'

I asked Jamie Munro - my UK-based friend and expert on all matters AI and robotics, and now a regular columnist for The Customer & The Constituent - to comment on the upside, downside, ethics and general state-of-play around the use of AI in this low-price-specialist, youth-targeting New Zealand telco's marketing.

Here's his reply (noting that he's given consideration to explaining some background, for the benefit of my growing international readership):

Skinny is a mobile network provider based in New Zealand that has recently introduced an "AI brand ambassador".

In this case, Skinny has been able to "clone" a real person and use her likeness in a number of AI-generated adverts. Over the last few years, we have witnessed the "deepfake" phenomenon, in which AI technology has been able to generate increasingly realistic images of real people in fictional scenarios.

More recently, AI video generation has improved to the point where a similar thing can be done with videos.

Up until this point, much of the commentary has been focused on the negative impacts of this technology with, for example, reports of nefarious individuals using the technology to generate pornographic images of women without their consent and, by way of another example, manipulate public opinion with realistic but misleading content in the political sphere.

By contrast, Skinny provides an example of the positive applications of the technology. In its case, Skinny has been able "train" an AI video model to produce realistic video and imagery of the company's "brand ambassador", a customer called Liz. Once the model is trained, the marketing team at Skinny is able to rapidly generate "creative" of Liz in various different scenarios.

Cost Efficiencies Are Considerable

In interviews, Skinny compares the cost of getting the video model set up, to the cost of a traditional marketing campaign, pointing out that they now have the model permanently available, and can create new material quickly and cheaply. They are also able to use AI to rapidly test out a variety of ideas, a process that would be too costly without using AI. They emphasise that responsible and ethical usage of AI should include being very upfront, transparent and clear when dealing with AI-generated content.

In the coming years, businesses who are able to apply AI technology effectively will derive serious advantages over those still stuck in the past. Those willing to embrace the new technology in a thoughtful and responsible way will be rewarded with improved efficiency and productivity.

On the other hand, irresponsible usage of AI can be highly counter-productive. Consider the potential backlash if Skinny had used their AI brand ambassador without disclosing that she was generated using AI, and this later became public knowledge.

Consumer attitudes towards AI will change over time, and the usage of AI-generated content may eventually become so common that disclosure is unnecessary, but we are certainly not there yet.

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