Artificial intelligence has completely changed the way we create, consume, and evaluate content. It feels like we are advancing at a rapid rate and we finally aren’t afraid to speak our minds on the consequences and benefits of AI. Conversations, and often arguments, over what’s ethical, moral, and even legal are constantly flooding social media.

There is a tension growing between businesses and the public when it comes to trust and implementation of AI. As businesses race to embrace the technology, consumers are demanding more authenticity, transparency, and human involvement. This has led to many challenges with the rollout of AI over the last few years, and it leads to some interesting questions for the future.

What will AI look like in ten years? Will there be new legislation surrounding it? What does AI mean for content creation?

And personally, a question I am most intrigued to learn the answer of: will the public ever fully embrace AI?

THE PUBLIC IS SKEPTIC

One of the biggest challenges with AI generated content is the growing skepticism from the public and what marketers are calling the “trust penalty”.

Despite the widespread adoption of AI, public skepticism remains high. A 2025 global study found that only 46% of people are willing to trust AI systems. This means more than half are hesitant or outright distrustful when it comes to the use of AI. Even more interesting, 70% of respondents supported stronger regulations around AI.

There is a real business problem when it comes to this gap in trust. While users may organically engage with AI generated content, they become distrustful when they discover the content was made by a machine instead of a human. As a result, the consumer may distrust the business a whole. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN TOUCH

Ironically, the explosion of machine-generated content has made human-created content much more valuable.

YouTubers are creating content exploring the importance of human touch and examining how much we will grow to miss subtle mistakes in artwork. It’s clear that we are craving authenticity in the content we consume.

Research from MIT found that we demonstrate “human favoritism” when evaluating content we know the source of. Even if the AI content performs well, audiences will place higher value on content that comes from real people.  

There has been a shift in how creators are making content with emphasis on personal experience and unique perspectives. Creators want to make sure their audience knows their work is authentic and not computer generated. They’re aiming to build connections.

MACHINE OUTPUT

The internet is already extremely saturated with AI assisted content.

Approximately 50% of newly published online articles are AI-generated or heavily assisted by AI. We could be consuming AI generated content without ever being aware of it. Which isn’t necessarily a problem. Tools like spellcheck, grammar assistance, image enhancement, and other software have been accepted as creative tools for years.

That means it doesn’t matter if AI was involved in overall process of creating the content, but it does matter if that content is accurate, useful, and honest.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SEO

Despite this flood of AI generated content, high-performing search content still tends to have strong human involvement.

Google, for example, doesn’t penalize content because AI was used. Their official guidelines evaluate content based on quality, expertise, trustworthiness, and usefulness. SEO professionals have noticed that large volumes of low-quality AI content struggle to rank competitively because it lacks original insights and experiences.

WHAT ABOUT A HYBRID APPROACH?

There is a world where AI and human-made content can coexist peacefully in a hybrid manner. As I mentioned earlier, humans are more forgiving when AI is being used as a tool. This way content and human creativity isn’t being replaced by AI.

Human-reviewed, human-edited, AI-assisted (emphasis on assisted) work tends to outperform automated content from both a trust and engagement perspective. Some “correct” ways of using AI can look like:

• Using it to research a topic.
• Generating an outline or first draft.
• Adding original analysis and perspective to the AI material
• Being transparent with the use.
• Verifying any subject matter and facts.

Some “incorrect” ways of using AI can look like:

• Publishing AI-generated content without factchecking.
• Passing off AI work as personal expertise.
• Creating fake reviews or other fake content and presenting it as factual or real.
• Using AI to impersonate real people.

The best way to use AI in content is to make sure there’s a human-touch element behind the creativity. A hybrid approach is a great way to use AI.

WHAT’S EVEN LEGAL?

One of the biggest topics I see being discussed online is around the legal aspects of AI usage. The government is beginning to step into the conversation more and more.

The European Union’s AI act now includes obligations about AI content being identifiable. Depending on the use, companies may need to include machine-readable markings, labels, or disclosures. Especially on any deepfakes or public interest content.

It seems like the closer the content gets to influencing public opinion, elections, health, or finances, the stronger the legal obligations become.

On top of that, copyright law is still one of the most misunderstood aspects of AI generated content.

There is a lot of discourse in the book community about copyright laws and what is acceptable in writing. If an author writes a book purely using AI, is it considered stolen content? I would argue that it is because the AI is pulling work from multiple sources.

 Any work that is purely AI generated content can’t be copyrighted according to US copyright laws.  Human creativity must play a significant role in the creation. However, human-edited or directed work can still receive copyright protection when human contribution is suffiecently creative.

Personally, I believe it’s too difficult to tell what is AI generated and what isn’t which really muddies the waters. There is software out there that can supposedly detect AI, but even that software has proven to be untrustworthy. I think there’s a lot of work to do when it comes to the legality side of AI generated work.

AUDIENCE DEMANDS TRUST  

The debate around AI boils down to trust. Audiences aren’t necessarily demanding a future without AI entirely, but they are looking for regulations and guidelines around its usage. People want transparency, trust, and authenticity.

I believe the companies and organizations that will thrive the most with AI are the ones who use it as a tool rather than a creative vice. I think the same can be said about personal usage, too.

There’s clearly a lot of work to be done before we get to a place where we can fully trust the content we are consuming.