Through this article Dylan explores five developments in AI this month that matter most for communications, reputation and digital strategy.
1. The EU AI Act's transparency era has arrived
The EU AI Act's Article 50 transparency requirements began applying earlier this month. Among other provisions, AI-generated or manipulated content needs machine-readable marking in certain circumstances, while deepfakes must be disclosed and AI-generated text concerning matters of public interest must be clearly labelled where it has not undergone human review or editorial control.
Communications teams will now need an AI content governance policy, not simply access to AI tools. As per the PRII’s update, this means “AI literacy needs to go beyond prompting. Communications professionals need to understand AI’s risks around accuracy, bias, privacy, copyright, synthetic media, transparency and reputation”. Read the full PRII piece here.
LinkedIn declare war on “AI slop”
LinkedIn introduced a “Seems like AI slop” feedback option this month and within weeks, more than one million members had used it. LinkedIn says users are now seeing around 40% fewer views of content it classifies as AI slop. The platform has also retired its AI “enhance your post” feature in favour of proofreading that is intended to preserve the author's own voice.
In the AI era, sounding truly human could become an algorithmic advantage. AI can accelerate ideation, research and editing, but generic executive posts, formulaic thought leadership and mass-produced comments may increasingly become a distribution disadvantage.
Ireland ranks 2nd in the EU for AI Skills
Ireland’s labour market is generating AI jobs at 2-3 times the pace of other EU countries, according to a new report launched by The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). Ireland is also a leader in respect of AI skills - ranking 2nd in the EU (behind Luxembourg) and also 2nd in relation to how widely AI is being used across the economy. The report notes a marked rise in AI usage across the Irish economy but with an uneven pace of adoption across enterprises and individuals. Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, welcomed the report and noted its relevance as Ireland plans for long-term competitiveness and workforce resilience. Read the full report here.
Reddit ChatGPT visibility collapse
Earlier this month, The Verge reported on marketers attempting to seed brands into Reddit conversations specifically because those discussions could influence AI-generated answers, creating a new form of “AI SEO spam.” Reddit moderators have consequently been fighting increasingly sophisticated covert brand promotion and AI-generated content. By mid-August, Reddit ChatGPT Search citations had fallen from 4% to 0.52%, an 85% decline. This sudden decline shows how quickly the rules of AI visibility can change and how search engines that rely too heavily on sources can become easy to manipulate.
The synthetic content backlash
The AI paradox means that content abundance is making human originality more valuable. Divine isthe new Vine-inspired six-second video platform backed by Jack Dorsey, which has explicitly banned AI-generated content and is positioning human creativity as part of its proposition, already signing Taco Bell as its first brand partner. Dorsey said he was "sick and tired of seeing videos and not knowing whether it was real". Early interest shows the app might be tapping into something, over 10,000 people installed the app within its first few hours, overwhelming the servers.
To learn more about Drury's range of communications services, feel free to contact Dylan Newe, via LinkedIn or dylan.newe@drury.ie
