How could any Marketing Manager resist the temptation of the promise of AI? Like any new technology, we are quickly beginning to understand the power inherent with this new tool.
Much has been discussed about the societal opportunities and threats but what about those that could impact YOU, the communicator bent on leveraging AI to make your job easier, more efficient, or more effective?
Legal and Moral Implications
Yesterday I read a full page advertisement from a local law firm that may be establishing themselves as a resource for AI related issues. Falcon, Rappaport & Berkman have offices throughout the US in major metro areas.
Their advertisement provides some good perspective of the potential issues that can develop through inappropriate, careless, and/or malicious use of information. As their ad says, “the ability to construct a commanding brand presence and thought leadership by instantly generating on-point articles as needed,” is alluring to everyone in a fast-paced, competitive environment.
AI may serve up information to you. However, you will own the action and activity associated with the usage and may have to vouch for its credibility.
Potential AI Landmines
The premise from the law firm is sound and serves as a basic foundation for evaluating all information that is going to be distributed to the masses. Some of these you may (should) already be doing. Others should be worthy of your attention:
• Industry Data Confidentiality – Some of the data that comes back may have been sourced from confidential areas. Be mindful of any state or federal regulations that may impact the data you are acquiring. Something may be legal in one state and not another for instance.
• Intellectual Property Protection – You may unknowingly use copyright material which may potentially be subject to litigation. You can still be held liable if you didn’t know you were using copyright material. Published materials, photos, lyrics, stories and other intellectual property may inadvertently be scooped up in an AI data dump.
According to the US Copyright Office, AI generated content cannot be copyrighted. You can’t assign a copyright to the materials you have created from AI.
• Personal and Private Information – As AI scours all corners of the internet to capture data on individuals, be sure to eliminate any of the information that may fall into a protected category. The list of protections is increasing, and the scope of these protections vary by state and country.
How to Protect Yourself
Be mindful of the data you are pulling and be careful to review and synthesize everything that you personally use. Avoid wading into controversial areas with third party data you have secured from broad sources.
Talk to your company about whether a policy should be created around the use of this data. This is important to establish any ground rules that are created in light of your business parameters or sensitivities.
This technology is moving very fast and mistakes are bound to happen. Hopefully, you won’t become a victim.