In the world of web design and user experience, understanding the impact of generative AI on content creation and user perceptions is crucial. A recent MIT research paper titled “Human Favoritism, Not AI Aversion: People’s Perceptions (and Bias) Toward Generative AI, Human Experts, and Human-GAI Collaboration in Persuasive Content Generation” delves into this topic, providing valuable insights for professionals in the field.
The study found that when people had no information about the source of the content, they preferred the results generated by AI. However, when people were told the source of the content, their estimation of work involving humans went up, expressing “human favoritism”1. The researchers concluded that the bias in evaluation is predominantly driven by human favoritism rather than AI aversion.
Their findings also suggest that people are more favorable towards human-AI collaboration and do not exhibit the same biases against AI as they might against conventional predictive AI systems1. These findings have significant implications for professionals in web design, user experience, and content creation, as they can leverage AI-generated content without fear of alienating their audience.
Potential Use-Cases for Implementing the Researchers’ Discoveries
- AI-generated content for websites: Web designers and content creators can use AI-generated content to create engaging and persuasive website copy, knowing that users will not have a negative perception of the content due to its AI origin.
- AI-generated content for marketing campaigns: Marketing professionals can leverage AI-generated content for creating persuasive messages in advertising campaigns, social media posts, and email marketing, confident that the content will be well-received by their target audience.
- AI-generated content for user support: Companies can use AI-generated content for creating user support materials, such as FAQs, help articles, and chatbot responses, without worrying about user aversion to the content’s AI origin.
- Collaborative content creation: Professionals can explore the augmented human and augmented AI paradigms, where humans and AI systems work together to create content that leverages the strengths of both human creativity and AI’s efficiency and scalability.
1 Zhang, Y., & Gosline, R. (2023, May 25). Human favoritism, not AI aversion: People’s perceptions (and bias) toward generative AI, human experts, and human-gai collaboration in Persuasive content generation. SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4453958