Essay – The use of Artificial Intelligence in Digital Content Creation
Artificial intelligence technology has emerged in recent years as a competitive advantage in the digital marketing industry (Somosi, 2022). Due to its rapid development, AI can simulate the methods and thought processes of creative members (design thinking) through algorithms (Li, 2019). As a social media content creator, I feel that AI technology has the potential to improve workflow and inspire new ways of content creation. Prompts can be fed into ChatGPT to produce content ideas, captions, and hashtags – making it easy for individuals and groups with little to no background in media production to break into the influencer market (Pellas, 2023). For designers, artificial intelligence has changed the digital content creation process, requiring them to reshape their design thinking to make full use of its capabilities (Li, 2019). There are a few downsides to the use of AI as AI-generated content are sourced from datasets that are not guaranteed to have the consent of the original artist and/or publisher. This puts the contents’ quality, authenticity, and ethics in question; therefore, we must take these circumstances into account and take precautions when using AI technology (such as DALL-E and ChatGPT). For this essay, I will examine the impact of artificial intelligence in digital content creation to determine how to best use its technology.
Artificial intelligence tools have been implemented into the Google Ads system to determine target audiences, allowing companies to direct potential customers to their websites via search engine optimization (or SEO) (Somosi, 2022). This ability provides the user with a competitive advantage over companies not utilizing AI. In a research paper on “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Content Creation and Checking Its Effectiveness in the Google Ads Advertising System”, Somosi (2022) found that artificial intelligence as a content creator exceeded expectations on its effectiveness compared to a human marketer. They prepared two ads for wedding photo and video services with a consistent low budget which were shown to women aged 25-44 living in Hungary. Both ads were shown for 10 days and were evaluated based on the following criteria: clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), average cost-per-click (CPC), estimated conversion value (HUF) and estimated return on investment (ROI). They found that the marker ad achieved a conversion rate of 1.95% while the AI ad received 0.94%, resulting in a small difference in effectiveness. This result shows a few benefits of AI-powered content creation, such as efficiency, cost savings, accessibility, and creative exploration (Pellas, 2023). The marketer ad and AI ad cost the same and did not require much human labour to produce and implement on Google Ads.
The technology also provides accessibility to content creators, empowering them to effortless create generative AI content based on prompts, explore their creativity and alleviating production demands (Pellas, 2023). A study done on 398 undergraduate students found that 72.63% of students displayed a “positive attitude towards the use and development of AI-supported video content in their teaching and learning processes” (Pellas, 2023). This sentiment can be transferred to future employment roles thus increasing the chances of utilizing AI technology in industries like digital marketing.
Although the benefits of AI in digital content creation is promising, we must consider some of its drawbacks – ethical concerns, bias and fairness, quality and authenticity, and depersonalization. AI technology has raised concerns related to authenticity and ethical use. The use of virtual personas, video enhancements (such as Deepfakes) and other video content blurs the line between human and AI-generated content. The potential use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking and the entertainment industry have also raised ethical concerns due to “its misuse in spreading misinformation and creating fraudulent content” (Pellas, 2023).
Concerns regarding the bias and fairness of artificial intelligence have been raised due to the biased data used for training the generative models. Although AI models are monitored by humans, ensuring its fairness and diversity in generated content is a challenge yet to be addressed. The AI-generated content also lacks emotional depth and detail that human-created content provides. It’s easy to generate an image on DALL-E but what are the chances that the images look authentic? Another drawback of AI-generated video content is depersonalization, the feeling of detachment and disconnect from one’s physical body. Interaction with non-human figures, such as virtual personas, over a period of time can contribute to the sense of depersonalization in media (Pellas, 2023).
In conclusion, artificial intelligence technology can be beneficial to various industries, such as digital marketing but must be utilized with precaution. Like any technological advancement, artificial intelligence has its drawbacks and must be used in consideration of “ethical, legal, and societal implications”. We will require further research as AI continues to be implemented into our everyday lives and continue to address the potential harms of AI.
References:
Li, Yan. “Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Creative Digital Content Production.” Journal of Digital Art Engineering and Multimedia 6, no. 2 (December 31, 2019): 121–32. https://doi.org/10.29056/idaem.2019.12.05.
Pellas, Nikolaos. “The Influence of Sociodemographic Factors on Students’ Attitudes toward AI-Generated Video Content Creation.” Smart Learning Environments 10, no. 1 (November 6, 2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00276-4.
SOMOSI, Zoltán. “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Content Creation and Checking Its Effectiveness in the Google Ads Advertising System.” The Annals of the University of Oradea. Economic Sciences 31, no. volume 31 (December 2022): 259–70.
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