Some publishers see generative AI as a fundamental challenge to their business. Some would say it’s an “existential threat” but that phrase is overused and annoying.

Generative AI is certainly disruptive, but it also presents a lot of new opportunities.

As I say in my most recent letter, I believe the larger threat is from AI-curated content.

No matter where you stand on this, you should have a written policy for the use of AI in your organization.

That policy should cover general principles like …

Transparency – when and to what extent do you have to disclose that you’ve used AI?

Accountability – to what extent is a human responsible for the final product.

Data privacy and compliance – make sure you’re not feeding AI with information it shouldn’t oughta have.

Your policy should also cover how AI can be used. For example …

• As an assistant in research and analysis.

• To check grammar and spelling.

• To create or edit first drafts.

• To create or enhance images (with some limitations below).

• To create a transcript of audio or video content.

In all these cases you should give some guidelines on where AI work ends and a human’s review begins.

You should list prohibited activities, like …

• Fully automated content generation. Personally I think fully automated content is fine in certain cases – such as creating summaries of an article – so long as that’s clearly explained.

• Using AI images to depict real people or events.

• Using AI to make value judgments on sensitive issues.

The policy should say whether all content must be reviewed by a human author. That’s particularly important with fact-checking.

You might also require a certain level of training before employees are allowed to use AI.

I’ve drafted an AI policy for The Krehbiel Group which you can use as a starting point. You can find it here.

https://krehbielgroup.com/the-krehbielgroup-ai-policy/