8 Best Practices for Ethically Using AI to Accelerate Content Creation

Amy Zwagerman
5 min readDec 15, 2023

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AI Content Creation (Image courtesy of Unsplash)

Hi. I’m Amy, the Founder and Chief Marketing Person here at the Launch Box. My mission is to help entrepreneurs and small business owners achieve their dreams by learning how to think more like a marketer.

My goal today is to shed some light on why it’s important to define what you consider ethical when it comes to the use of AI in the content creation process. This is a bit hyperbolic, but AI is a game-changer, and how business leaders choose to wield its power can either elevate or erode the fabric of responsible innovation.

I know, I know — that statement feels a little bit too heavy doesn’t it? Let’s take it down a notch and agree that what we’re really talking about is how to preserve authenticity, transparency, and fairness when it comes to creating branded content. When you think about it that way, ethical considerations aren’t just a side note; they’re the back bone of how a brand chooses to present itself to the world.

Because ethics are not one-size-fits-all, I’ve tapped into the insights of eight industry powerhouses to bring you the lowdown on the ethical guidelines they use. From combining AI output with human expertise to providing consistent refinement of both your team and system, here are their suggestions.

Ethical AI Content Creation Best Practices:

  • Combine AI Output with Human Expertise
  • Utilize AI for Content Brief Creation
  • Prioritize Fact-Checking
  • Strive for Balance in the Automation
  • Employ Transfer Learning to Reduce Bias
  • Disclose AI Use to Your Audience
  • Ensure Training from Diverse Datasets
  • Consistently Refine Your System

Combine AI Output with Human Expertise

I think it goes without saying that the use of AI to generate content is common these days. While Google has already mentioned that it’s not illegal, there is definitely an ethical way to do it. Many inexperienced or lazy publishers will resort to simply posting the raw output without any sort of human intervention to keep up with content velocity.

However, as the internet continues to be populated with low-quality and mass-produced content, the ethical way to do it is by making sure you use your own human expertise — A.K.A. your brain.

Use the AI writer to get out of the blank page syndrome and get a decent draft. But continue to add analogies, personal experiences, unique value, and other rich media before posting.

Brendan Aw, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, brendanaw.com

Utilize AI for Content Brief Creation

Having your writers adhere to a specific set of guidelines is always a challenge, but using AI to create the brief helps ensure that you have the time to think through the outcomes you hope for the content without exhausting all of your energy writing out the brief.

Jason Vaught, Director of Content, SmashBrand

Prioritize Fact-Checking

AI is super powerful, but it’s not 100% accurate. That means fact-checking your content is an important part of using AI in content creation. This doesn’t have to be onerous, but it is crucial.

You’ll still save time by using AI, so the few minutes it takes to make sure the information you’re sharing is correct won’t be a major drain on efficiency. A little human effort goes a long way to improving your results with AI.

Temmo Kinoshita, Co-founder, Lindenwood Marketing

Strive for Balance in the Automation

One of the best practices for ethically using AI to accelerate content creation is to maintain a balance between automation and human creativity. While AI can assist in generating content, it’s crucial to ensure that human oversight and editing are in place.

By using AI as a tool rather than relying solely on it, you can leverage its capabilities to streamline processes, generate ideas, or assist with repetitive tasks. However, it’s important to review and refine the AI-generated content to ensure accuracy, relevance, and alignment with your brand voice.

This approach allows you to harness the efficiency of AI while preserving the authenticity and quality of your content.

Gabe Roy, Founder and Creative Director, Zest Media Productions

Employ Transfer Learning to Reduce Bias

The ethical use of AI technology is crucial for the success of content creation. One best practice is to employ transfer learning to reduce bias in AI-generated content. Transfer learning is a process in which a pre-trained AI model is modified and fine-tuned for a specific task, using a smaller dataset.

For example, instead of training an AI model for an entirely new language, fine-tune an existing language model with the help of a translation dataset. Ethical AI content generation involves identifying and addressing all types of human biases that may be present, to ensure that the end result is fair, accurate, and without discrimination.

Basana Saha, Founder, KidsCareIdeas

Disclose AI Use to Your Audience

When using AI to accelerate content creation, it’s only fair to let your audience know. Think of it as maintaining an honest dialogue with your readers.

For example, if a news article or blog post has been written by AI, it’s important to disclose that to the readers. This ensures that they can make informed judgments about the content. It also helps promote the responsible and ethical use of AI in content creation.

While AI is a fantastic tool that speeds up the content creation process, it’s important to remember that we humans are still the captains of the ship. We need to ensure the content aligns with ethical standards and doesn’t spread misinformation. It’s about harnessing the power of AI, but also taking responsibility for the content we present.

Michelle Burson, President and Co-founder, MarComm

Ensure Training from Diverse Datasets

One of the best practices for ethically using AI to accelerate content creation is to ensure that the AI system is trained on diverse and representative datasets. This helps to avoid bias and ensure that the content generated by the AI is inclusive and respectful of all individuals and communities.

Additionally, it is important to involve humans in the content creation process, so they can review and edit the content generated by the AI to ensure it is appropriate and aligned with the brand’s values. Finally, it is important to be transparent about the use of AI in content creation and to communicate this to consumers, so they are aware of how their content is being generated.

Georgi Todorov, Founder, ThriveMyWay

Consistently Refine Your System

AI should be seen as a tool to augment human capabilities rather than replace them entirely.

By maintaining human oversight, you can ensure that the content meets ethical standards, aligns with the brand’s voice, and resonates with the target audience. Provide clear guidelines and training to AI systems to ensure they understand the context, style, and desired outcomes of the content.

This involves training the AI on existing high-quality content and continuously refining its algorithms based on human feedback and input. Clear guidelines help AI systems generate content that is aligned with ethical standards and brand values.

Continuously evaluate the output of AI-generated content to ensure it meets the desired standards. Human editors or reviewers should review and make necessary adjustments or enhancements to the AI-generated content before it is published. This helps to catch any inaccuracies, biases, or inconsistencies that may arise from the AI system.

Harsh Verma, SEO, CodeDesign

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Amy Zwagerman

👩🏻‍💻 Ex-corporate marketer-turned-professor-turned-founder @thelaunchboxus. I'm on a mission to help more startups succeed by embracing marketing.