Why I Can't Get on Board With AI UGC

Whatever your view on AI (and all the implications that come with it, both positive and negative) I hope I’m not the only one who simply cannot get on board with the concept of “AI UGC”, which I see being peddled ever more frequently.

I am the first to admit that almost all marketing content typically involves manufacturing a desired appearance, at least to a certain extent.

I know that McDonald’s hires a team of experts to make their burgers look far better than whatever is slapped down on the takeaway tray in real life.

I know that George Foreman was paid to claim he knocks out the fat with “his” grills (more than he ever got paid to box).

I see the Nespresso commercial with George Clooney (in fact is this even a thing any more? I don’t watch TV) and I’m smart enough to figure out that such a successful guy can probably afford a nicer coffee and was, in fact, being paid to endorse the product.

When I see a customer testimonial on YouTube or social media, unless it is clearly marked as some kind of ‘paid actor’ jobby (like those great old infomercials) I generally believe that this is a real enough person whose story has probably been tweaked and coaxed and ultimately presented to the best possible standard.

I don’t actually know any adult in real life who doesn’t understand this.

However, at least for me, straight up manufacturing fake customers using AI UGC tools is a bridge too far.

A scenario such as a customer sending you a clip and you editing it a bit to make it more presentable, that’s fine enough in my book as long as the fundamentals remain the same.

But I am bombarded with ads for tools that let me take a UGC video I like the look of (e.g. a talking head video about a different product) and then effectively use AI to turn that into an extremely realistic - perhaps imperceptibly realistic - piece of UGC for my brand.

The person who was talking about brand A is suddenly talking about brand B. Or perhaps the entire thing is fabricated from scratch.

But unlike celebrity endorsements, or carefully constructed promotional imagery (e.g. Maccas expectations vs reality), or any other such content where the layperson understands the rules of the game - at least to a sufficient extent so as to have a reasonable degree of circumspection, straight up manufactured AI UGC is a different ball game.

Just because you can prompt AI to create a video of a fake person who is made out to be a real customer, with a fake story designed to part a real person with real hard-earned cash, doesn’t mean you should.

I don’t think it is unreasonable or hyperbolic to say you risk immense reputational damage if caught out doing this.

We seek out other people’s reviews of the products and services we are considering buying because we want another human’s perspective (or in the case of endorsements we are prone to paying more attention to somebody we recognise and probably like).

Take away the human part of this and you are left with the purest of BS.