Yesterday morning, the event’s opening panel highlighted the central role that AI-generated content increasingly plays in the marketing industry.
There are few topics more important on the minds of marketers today than generative AI. So it was fitting that The Drum Live US kicked off yesterday morning with a panel discussion on technology and its growing impact on the advertising industry.
The three panelists – Laila Mignoni of Bacardi, Mrinalini Nair of Uber Advertising and Emily Golden of Runway – brought a wide range of illuminating perspectives to answer the central questions addressed throughout the conversation: how is generative AI transforming is she currently marketing and how is she about to do it? so in the future?
While the tenor of mainstream discussions about this technology in recent months has been worrying, given its potential to sow confusion and misinformation during a critical election year in the United States and elsewhere, panelists from yesterday were optimistic about its potential for the marketing industry.
Golden, who works as head of growth marketing at Runway – a company that builds AI models to generate images and videos – highlighted what she sees as the democratizing effect of technology in fields creative. “What we’re really looking to do at Runway is bring more people to the table to be able to tell stories,” she said. “Now anyone who has an idea can create something. »
But AI models themselves, she added, are not enough to ensure the generation of high-quality content; like any other creative tool, they are only useful in the hands of a competent artist. “Just because you hold a paintbrush doesn’t mean you’re Picasso,” she said.
Technically competent use of generative AI is one thing (many of us have honed our rapid engineering skills over the past year and a half), but ethical use is another. As the fame and sophistication of this technology has continued to grow, the public has also become aware of its more unsavory qualities, including the fact that models are, in some cases, trained using copyrighted materials by copyright or content that has been non-consensually collected by artists. .
The issue was brought to the forefront during the latest Hollywood writers’ strike, as well as in a recent open letter. signed by a host of renowned musicians which called for an end to the “predatory use of AI” within their industry.
Brands can play a leading role in this, according to Mignoni, global head of brand marketing communications at Bacardi. In the latest iteration of its Music Liberates Music campaign, the rum brand recently in partnership with superstar hip-hop producer Boi-1da to build an AI model that could then be used to empower emerging artists. The model was trained exclusively on Boi-1da’s catalog of beats, as well as some of his previously unreleased tracks, ensuring that the release would not include any material collected without consent.
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In the absence of federal regulation, Mignoni added, marketers should first and foremost look to their own moral compasses when trying to navigate the sometimes murky ethical waters of generative AI. “We don’t need to wait for exact (regulatory) guidelines,” she said. “We already know what is right (and) what is wrong.”
If there was a single, unifying theme that emerged during yesterday’s 35-minute panel, it was this: Generative AI is a powerful creative tool, but it is also still in its infancy. in its infancy, and marketers – like everyone else – should address it. with a mindset of experimentation and play, tempered by a touch of healthy caution.
As Nair, head of global partner solutions at Uber Advertising, puts it succinctly: “We’re all learning at the same time. »
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