According to a new study by Joe Youngblood, a digital marketing consultant, readers can typically identify whether content was created by a human or generated by AI. Youngblood surveyed US consumers and found out that they spotted AI-generated images correctly 71.63% of the time when they were shown real and AI-generated ones side by side. Many marketers must have thought that consumers cannot identify AI-generated content, be it texts or images, but this isn't the case.
The survey was done among 4,000 American consumers of different ages who were asked to detect AI-generated images. 88.78% correctly detected an AI-generated picture of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow while 88.46% correctly identified an AI-generated image of the Italian countryside. 87.97% and 83.58% were successful in identifying AI-generated images of baby peacocks and Jupiter respectively. But there were also some images the respondents weren't sure of like AI-generated versions of the Eiffel Tower or paintings of George Washington.
“With AI advancing so quickly, many assumed the average person wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” Youngblood said in an email to Digital Information World. “But our research shows that people are more aware of digital manipulation than we give them credit for.”
On the other hand, HooklineAnd surveyed 1,000 Americans to find out if they could identify AI-generated content and the results were similar, with 82.1% of respondents spotting AI-generated text. 88.4% of the respondents between the ages of 22-34 could tell if a text was written by AI, showing that younger people can spot AI content more easily than older people. However, 11.6% of people within the same age range said that they had never noticed AI-written content.
Both of the above reports show that content creators and marketers cannot sneak AI content past the consumers because they are easily able to identify it. Consumers also have different views about people who use AI, with 50.1% saying that they think less of writers who use AI while 40.4% said the same about brands who use AI-generated content. Only 10.1% of consumers say that they like it when brands use AI-generated content. 30% of the older people between the ages of 45-65 see AI in a negative light the most.
53.7% of the respondents say that they don't mind the usage of AI if it is for brainstorming, while 55.8% are in favor of using AI for conducting research. Consumers also don't see an issue if AI is being used for editing content (50.8%) and data analysis (50.1%). This means that if marketers want to use AI-generated content, they first have to know their audience and try to be transparent. Using AI wisely without compromising on quality is the key to making consumers stay even if they can identify AI-generated content.
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The survey was done among 4,000 American consumers of different ages who were asked to detect AI-generated images. 88.78% correctly detected an AI-generated picture of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow while 88.46% correctly identified an AI-generated image of the Italian countryside. 87.97% and 83.58% were successful in identifying AI-generated images of baby peacocks and Jupiter respectively. But there were also some images the respondents weren't sure of like AI-generated versions of the Eiffel Tower or paintings of George Washington.
“With AI advancing so quickly, many assumed the average person wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” Youngblood said in an email to Digital Information World. “But our research shows that people are more aware of digital manipulation than we give them credit for.”
On the other hand, HooklineAnd surveyed 1,000 Americans to find out if they could identify AI-generated content and the results were similar, with 82.1% of respondents spotting AI-generated text. 88.4% of the respondents between the ages of 22-34 could tell if a text was written by AI, showing that younger people can spot AI content more easily than older people. However, 11.6% of people within the same age range said that they had never noticed AI-written content.
Both of the above reports show that content creators and marketers cannot sneak AI content past the consumers because they are easily able to identify it. Consumers also have different views about people who use AI, with 50.1% saying that they think less of writers who use AI while 40.4% said the same about brands who use AI-generated content. Only 10.1% of consumers say that they like it when brands use AI-generated content. 30% of the older people between the ages of 45-65 see AI in a negative light the most.
53.7% of the respondents say that they don't mind the usage of AI if it is for brainstorming, while 55.8% are in favor of using AI for conducting research. Consumers also don't see an issue if AI is being used for editing content (50.8%) and data analysis (50.1%). This means that if marketers want to use AI-generated content, they first have to know their audience and try to be transparent. Using AI wisely without compromising on quality is the key to making consumers stay even if they can identify AI-generated content.
Read next:
• AI Adoption Enters New Phase Driven by Infrastructure Overhauls and Embedded Features
• Study Reveals ChatGPT’s Cognitive Shortcuts and Biases, Questioning AI’s Trustworthiness in Critical Decisions