The Ethics of Using AI in Content Creation

Introduction

Lately, I’ve been using AI tools to help create blog posts such as Secular Christianity. I’ve enjoyed it, but it has made me think a lot about the ethics of using AI in content creation.

The importance of ethical considerations is rising. Further, this trend is evidenced by many articles emerging from various sectors. Here are some examples:

1. What is AI Ethics? – IBM
2. Why the Public Sector Needs to Know About AI Ethics (and How We’re Helping) – Alan Turing Institute
3. Guidance on AI – University of Hawaii at Manoa

These publications and others consistently support the growing significance of ethics in decision-making processes. Consequently, it’s becoming increasingly clear that ethical considerations are no longer peripheral but rather central to many discussions across different industries and disciplines.

I wrote this article as a personal reminder about the importance of ethics in AI tool usage. It includes an AI ethics checklist for this and future posts, and answers the question: Should I continue to use AI tools to assist in writing blog posts?

❗️This post uses AI tools to help create content. You can find a description at AI Tools Used for This Post. If you find errors or unethical content, please indicate that in the Comments section.

Lifecycle of AI-Generated Content and Ethical Considerations in Each Phase

In the use of AI-generated content, there is a life cycle involving “actors” – both human and artificial – each with their own ethical considerations. Steps 2, 3, and 4, controlled by AI companies, currently do not provide sufficient information to fully evaluate ethical impacts. (Note: Corporations or academic institutions working with AI companies may have more information).

Lifecycle of AI-Generated Content

(1) Original content creators
⬇️
(2) Data collectors and aggregators
⬇️
(3) AI model developers
⬇️
(4) AI content generator platforms
⬇️
(5) Writers/content creators

1. Original Content Creators
   • Writers that create the original content used for AI training data
   • Ethical considerations: Intellectual property rights, fair compensation, consent for data usage
2. Data Collectors and Aggregators
   • Gather and organize large amounts of text data from different sources.
   • Ethical considerations: Privacy, data security, transparent data collection
3. AI Model Developers
   • Create and train AI models for content generation.
   • Ethical considerations: Algorithmic bias, transparency, responsible AI
4. AI Content Generation Platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity)
   • Create an interface for human-AI interaction and content generation.
   • Ethical considerations: Accuracy, misinformation, disclosure of AI-generated content
5. Writers/Content Creators
   • Writers who use AI-generated content as a writing tool
   • Ethical considerations: Proper attribution, transparency, originality, and authenticity

Throughout this lifecycle, key ethical themes emerge:

• Transparency: All actors should be clear about the use and limitations of AI in the content creation process
• Accountability: Responsibility for the accuracy and quality of content should be clearly defined
• Fairness: Ensuring equitable access to AI tools and addressing potential biases in AI-generated content
• Privacy: Protecting personal data and respecting intellectual property rights throughout the process
• Integrity: Maintaining the value of human creativity and critical thinking in content creation

These themes will be incorporated into the checklist. But first, I’ll expand on them further.

Ethical Issues for Using AI in Content Generation

For AI content, ethics refers to principles and standards that govern its creation, utilization, and distribution.

Those principles and standards include the following:

1. Accountability: Ensure that humans are in control and responsible for the AI-generated content in order to prevent errors and unethical practices (OriginalityAI)(Murgesan).
2. Fairness: AI dataset developers should minimize biases in training data in order to enhance fairness and equality in the model’s outputs.
3. Transparency: Clearly indicate AI-generated content to build trust and allow users to critically evaluate the content (OriginalityAI)(Gocklin).
4. Intellectual Property and Plagiarism: Respect copyright laws and avoid unauthorized use of others’ work, because AI can inadvertently plagiarize or misuse copyrighted material (Alves)(ContentBloom).
5. Confidentiality: AI systems must safeguard personal data in order to prevent privacy violations and comply with regulations (ContentBloom)(Murgesan).
6. Accuracy: AI may produce inaccurate information, which can pose a risk of spreading misinformation and undermining credibility (OriginalityAI)(Gocklin).
7. Ownership: Define AI content ownership and authorship for legal and ethical clarity (OriginalityAI)(Murgesan).

Checklist: Ethics of Using AI in Content Creation

Based on principles and standards, here’s my checklist for this post, indicating if an issue has been fully, partially, or not successfully addressed.

1. 🟢 Issue addressed. Additional information may be provided.
2. 🟡 Issue partially addressed. Additional information is provided.
3. 🔴 Issue not addressed. Additional information is provided.

Accountability

🟢 Do I accept accountability for the final content published?
“Ensuring accountability and responsibility, as well as developing an appropriate legal framework, will help promote the ethical use of these technologies” (Murgesan).

🟢 Have I established a clear protocol for addressing errors or unethical content generated by AI in my posts?
“Organisations should implement mechanisms to ensure oversight of AI systems and accountability for their proper functioning” (UNESCO, 2021).

Readers can use Comments to address issues.

Fairness

🔴 Does the AI company train the AI system on diverse and representative data?
“Developers are responsible for ensuring the model is trained on diverse and representative data and for implementing safeguards to prevent misuse” (Murgesan).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

🔴 Is there a process to identify and mitigate biases in AI-generated content?
“Developers should test for biases during the development, deployment and use of AI systems and continuously monitor their operation” (UNESCO, 2021).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

Transparency

🟢 Do I clearly disclose all AI-generated content?
“There should be transparency and responsible disclosure around AI systems to ensure that people understand when they are engaging with them and can make informed decisions about their interactions” (The Public Voice Coalition, 2018).

Nothing in this post uses AI-generated content verbatim. However, several sections heavily utilize results from AI searches. See AI Tools Used for This Post.

🟢 Do I inform readers about the role of AI in content creation?
“Users must be mindful of the data they provide to AI systems, including personal information and other sensitive data” (Murgesan).

See the notification above and AI Tools Used for This Post.

🟢 Have I provided information about the AI system and its limitations to readers?
“Explainable AI is essential to build and maintain users’ trust and confidence in AI systems” (European Commission, 2021).

See AI Tools Used for This Post and Limitations of AI Tools.

Intellectual Property and Plagiarism

🔴 Have I checked the AI-generated content for potential copyright infringement?
“AI systems should be designed and developed to respect intellectual property rights” (Council of Europe, 2020).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

🔴 Have I checked the AI-generated content for potential plagiarism?
“Unintentional or deliberate plagiarism is a significant ethical concern with AI-generated content” (Contentbloom, 2023).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

🟢 Have I given proper attributions for any sourced material?
“Organizations should implement measures to respect copyright and attribute sources appropriately” (UNESCO, 2021).

See References.

Privacy and Data Protection

🔴 Does AI-generated content protect personal data and use it ethically?
“Organizations should implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data used in AI systems” (European Data Protection Board, 2021).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

🔴 Are there clear policies on data retention and deletion for AI-generated content?
“Clear data retention and deletion policies should be established and communicated” (UNESCO, 2021).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

🔴 Does the AI company obtain user consent for data used in AI training?
“Safeguarding privacy rights is fundamental to maintaining user trust and complying with regulations” (Contentbloom, 2023).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

Accuracy and Misinformation

🔴 Does the AI system use credible and verified sources of information?
“AI systems should be trained on high-quality, diverse data from reputable sources” (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2022).

I couldn’t find a reliable way to verify this; the information must come from the tool provider.

🟡 Have I fact-checked the AI-generated content before publication?
“AI systems should be designed to produce accurate and reliable outputs” (Council of Europe, 2020).

Parts of the source material are complex. I review the relevant sections for this post.

Authorship and Ownership

🟢 Does the post clearly indicate AI content?
“There should be clarity on the extent of AI involvement in content creation” (The Public Voice Coalition, 2018).

🟢 Are the respective contributions of human authors and AI clearly delineated?
“Organizations should establish clear guidelines on attributing authorship in AI-assisted content creation” (UNESCO, 2021).

🟡 Is there a policy on who owns the rights to AI-generated content?
“Clear policies on intellectual property rights for AI-generated content should be established” (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2020).

For the Jetpack AI Assistant (Free Version), I could not find information. For other AI Tools, see Who Owns the Rights to AI-generated Content?.

The Numbers are In

So, how’d I do with the checklist?

• 9 issues addressed satisfactorily.
• 2 issues partially addressed.
• 8 issues unsatisfactorily addressed.

That’s not very encouraging. 40% of the checklist items “failed.” However, I cannot control the failed items. For example, I cannot determine if the company trains the AI system on diverse and representative data. Similarly, I cannot establish a process to identify and mitigate biases in AI-generated content. (These items are part of the problematic steps in the AI ethics life cycle that I mentioned earlier.).

While the tally is not ideal, the truth is, if I only focus on the things I can control in the checklist, my “score” would be much higher. But posts must ideally allow verification throughout the entire AI-ethics life cycle. It is worth mentioning again, that this is not easily achievable now.

Two Questions

The checklist highlights my current best practices for the ethics of using AI in content creation, but it’s evident that there are numerous issues to address.

Here are two questions I’m asking myself:

1. Do I wait until ethical and other issues have been more stabilized before I continue to use AI tools?
2. If, instead, I continue to use AI tools, how do I handle issues out of my control such as those related to AI datasets like bias, user consent, and intellectual property rights?

Here are my thoughts: Please review the checklist and see the items marked with 🟢. I think they cover the ethics of using AI content creation sufficiently given that it shows I’ve been transparent regarding its usage and implementation. So, I feel comfortable in continuing to use AI tools in the future.

What do you think? Is it enough? If not, what additional steps (or reductions) might be necessary? Finally, please share your insights in the Comments section below.

Closing

Although the post is lengthy, I found it important to remind myself about the ethics of using AI in content creation. I created an AI ethics checklist for this post, which I’ll continue to use it in the future. In addition, I have affirmed my decision to continue using AI to aid in creating blog posts.

I expect AI technology to continue advancing at its current high-speed pace. Managing this rapid innovation is challenging but ethical AI content creation must find a way to evolve accordingly. Writing this post has helped me establish ethical guidelines for my own writing, but I know, it too, will evolve further as I explore using AI.

It will be a fun and interesting journey.

Appendices

AI Tools Used for This Post

• Perplexity AI and Microsoft Copilot provided brainstorming assistance and research on ethical guidelines. They assisted in writing the following sections:
  • Lifecycle for AI Ethics
  • Ethical Issues in Using AI-Generated Content
  • Checklist: Ethical Use of AI in Content Creation
  • Citations
• Yost SEO WordPress plugin provided SEO (search engine optimization).
• The Jetpack AI Assistant from Jetpack performed grammar and spelling checks, as well as simplified paragraphs in the post.

Limitations of AI Tools

Here is Perplexity’s response to my query regarding its limitations, which also apply to other AI tools (edited for brevity).

While tools like Perplexity and other AI language models offer impressive capabilities in natural language processing and can provide quick, synthesized responses to queries, they are not infallible and have inherent constraints.

Here are the main limitations:

1. Potential for inaccurate or biased information due to training data limitations.
2. AI systems can be impressive but they lack true contextual awareness and have difficulty with nuanced language.
3. Inability to perform complex reasoning or problem-solving tasks.
4. Risk of generating or perpetuating misinformation.
5. Limited emotional intelligence and inability to understand user sentiment.
6. Potential data security and privacy concerns.
7. Inconsistency in response quality and depth.
8. Lack of real-time information updates and current event knowledge
9. Difficulty in handling multi-step or interdisciplinary queries
10. Absence of true understanding or consciousness behind responses

Who Owns the Rights to AI-generated Content?

Perplexity

When using Perplexity’s services, you can submit information (Input) to the Perplexity Engine, which then uses AI to generate responses (Output) based on your Input. You own the Input you provide, and when using the Output, you must follow any relevant third-party license rules. Clearly cite Output generated by the Services. Do not falsely claim that you generated the output using artificial intelligence.

Microsoft Copilot

Users of the free version of Microsoft Copilot (which I use) retain ownership of the AI-generated content but do not receive the copyright indemnification benefits provided to users of the paid versions. See Microsoft announces new Copilot Copyright Commitment for customers.

Note: Indemnification is a legal agreement where one party (the indemnitor) agrees to compensate another party (the indemnitee) for losses or damages.

Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin (Free Version)

There is no AI-generated content with the free version (which I use).

Jetpack AI Assistant (Free Version)

I was not able to obtain information about the free version.

References

Alves, Layzné. “A Simple Guide to Ethical Content Writing Using AI,” Momentum Digital Marketing Agency in Philadelphia, July 27, 2023. https://www.needmomentum.com/ethical-content-writing-using-ai/

ContentBloom. “Ethical Considerations in AI-Generated Content Creation.” Content Bloom, June 5, 2024. https://www.contentbloom.com/blog/ethical-considerations-in-ai-generated-content-creation/

Gocklin, Brooke. “The Ethics of Generative AI and Responsible Content Creation.” Contently, July 3, 2024. https://contently.com/2024/07/03/guidelines-for-responsible-content-creation-with-generative-ai/

Council of Europe. (2020). “Recommendation CM/Rec(2020)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the human rights impacts of algorithmic systems.” https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/committee-of-ministers-adopted-texts/-/asset_publisher/aDXmrol0vvsU/content/recommendation-cm-rec-2020-1-of-the-committee-of-ministers-to-member-states-on-the-human-rights-impacts-of-algorithmic-systems

European Commission. (2021). “Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence.” https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/proposal-regulation-laying-down-harmonised-rules-artificial-intelligence

European Data Protection Board. (2021). “Guidelines 01/2021 on Examples regarding Data Breach Notification.” https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/our-documents/guidelines/guidelines-012021-examples-regarding-data-breach-notification_en

Murgesan, San. “The Rise of Ethical Concerns About AI Content Creation: A Call to Action.” IEEE Computer Society, July 18, 2023. https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/trends/ethical-concerns-on-ai-content-creation

National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2022). “AI Risk Management Framework: Initial Draft.” https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-framework

OECD. (2019). “Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence.” https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0449

Originality.AI. “The Ethics of AI-Generated Content: A Discussion,” Originality.AI, https://originality.ai/blog/ethics-of-ai-generated-content

The Public Voice Coalition. (2018). “Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence.” https://thepublicvoice.org/ai-universal-guidelines/

UNESCO. (2021). “Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.” https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380455

World Intellectual Property Organization. (2020). “WIPO Conversation on Intellectual Property (IP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Revised Issues Paper on Intellectual Property Policy and Artificial Intelligence.” https://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_ai_2_ge_20/wipo_ip_ai_2_ge_20_1_rev.pdf