Wading through a sea of low-quality, AI-generated content on platforms like YouTube, Reddit or TikTok can turn off consumers while making it hard for professional artists, writers and other content creators to stand out.
That’s according to a new study outlining the market effects of unleashing AI on creative endeavors, allowing novices to flood the market with barely acceptable “AI slop.” However, the same study suggests that, as generative AI tools improve, consumers will have access to increasingly better content while professionals can benefit from enhancing their already high-quality work.
The study was inspired by the rapid rise in AI-generated or AI-enhanced content on most social media platforms. The generative AI tools can make it easier for beginners to enter creative spaces, but it quickly overwhelms consumers and platforms.
“Now there is a flood of relatively low-quality content. Because the quantity is so large, it congests the recommendation systems, so it gets harder to encounter the truly high-quality content,” said Tianxin Zou , Ph.D., a professor of marketing in the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business and co-author of the new report.
Using economic modeling, Zou and his colleagues explored the effects of generative AI on content marketplaces as the quality of AI tools increased from low quality — now often derided as AI slop — to expert level. When the AI content is middling, the authors found, it harms both consumers and professionals by making it harder to find content worth consuming.
Platforms would be better served by clearly labeling AI-generated content. That transparency would make it easier for consumers to decide what to engage with before they give up on a platform entirely while helping professionals stand out.
“If consumers can clearly identify what content is created by the professionals, then there wouldn’t be this problem because then consumers could just go to them,” Zou said.
We may still be in the slop phase of generative AI for artistic endeavors like video production. But if current trends continue, even professional artists may benefit from using generative AI to bring their expert-quality work to the next level, the researchers found.
“For professionals, the best thing for them to do is learn to use generative AI and combine it into their workflow,” Zou said. “At the same time, they have to pay attention to whether consumers like the way they incorporate generative AI.”
Zou collaborated with Zijun Shi, Ph.D., of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Yue Wu, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, on the study, which was published recently in the Journal of Marketing Research .
Journal of Marketing Research
Computational simulation/modeling
Not applicable
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