Authenticity in the Age of AI
When I started my firm from scratch, it was important to me to create a professional, modern-looking website. At the same time, I was trying to keep expenses to a minimum. I considered paying a professional to design and host the website, but I ultimately decided to do it myself. I built it using Squarespace and relied heavily on AI throughout the process. I spent hours experimenting with different logos, graphics, and branding concepts. It became something of a passion project as I tried to think through and articulate my vision for the firm. I abandoned most of the AI-generated imagery in favor of a simpler, cleaner design. However, I kept one AI-generated image that I liked and used it as the main banner on the homepage.
Shortly after the website went live, I asked two of my teenage nieces to take a look and tell me what they thought. Within seconds, one of them pointed to the main banner image and said, "You have to get rid of that."
I asked why.
"Because it's obviously AI-generated," she said.
The conversation that followed was fascinating. She explained that while people her age use AI constantly, there is also a certain stigma attached to it. For her generation, AI-generated content is easy to spot and considered lame or uncool. She mentioned concerns about AI replacing jobs. She brought up stories she had heard about the environmental impact of large AI models. Most interestingly, she said that even though many of her friends use AI all the time, few admit to it.
Human Perception
Humans have an incredible capacity to detect subtle patterns and differences in images, writing, and other forms of media. We instinctively recognize authenticity, even when we cannot fully articulate why something feels genuine or artificial. Our brains are remarkably adept at identifying the small imperfections, inconsistencies, and nuances that distinguish human creation from machine generation.
The current moment is putting these skills to the test and sharpening our abilities. As AI-generated content becomes more common, people will become even better at identifying the telltale signs of generic writing, artificial imagery, and formulaic thinking. Ironically, the easier it becomes to generate content, the less impressive that content becomes.
The Value Shift
An increasingly common experience among consumers is the feeling of disappointment that washes over them when they realize the content they are consuming is clearly AI-generated. Some consumers may share the same concerns as my teenage nieces, i.e., that AI is harmful to society and therefore not something they want to support. Others may have a less hostile view of AI but nevertheless conclude that content that is obviously AI-generated simply is not worth very much. After all, it likely required relatively little effort by the person who produced it. The concept of value is inextricably linked with effort.
The Goal: Create Work Product That is Not Suceptible to AI Stigma
Artificial intelligence is an extraordinary productivity tool. It can organize information, improve grammar, summarize complex material, and flesh out crude ideas with breadth and clarity. But there is an important distinction between using AI as a tool and allowing AI to become the product. Every piece of work that leaves my office should ultimately reflect my own judgment, analysis and carry my voice.
In a post AI-world, creators will try to distinguish their content from generic and obviously AI-generated content. Taken to the extreme, one could imagine people intentionally inserting spelling errors or other indicators of human creation to signal that something was created by a human rather than a machine. I doubt we'll reach that point, and as an attorney, I certainly wouldn't recommend it. But I do think the underlying idea is instructive. Authenticity has value.
My goal with this firm is to produce work that unmistakably reflects my own voice. AI may help me brainstorm, organize ideas, identify issues, or polish a draft, but the final product should sound like it came from me and not from a large language model. If the writing occasionally lacks the perfectly uniform cadence of AI-generated prose, I'm comfortable with that. Those subtle imperfections are often what make a writing feel genuine.
Ultimately, I believe this is the most effective way to use artificial intelligence. We add value by layering our judgment and expertise on top of the work that technology can produce quickly and efficiently. In other words, we act as liaisons between the human world we occupy and the machine-generated world of content that is exploding before our eyes. The future does not belong to professionals who simply know how to use AI. It belongs to professionals who know how to combine AI with authentic human skill.
