Today's Edition
KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
Perhaps no industry sits in the firing line of AI automation more than those in the writing and communications. The exponential growth of large language models threatens to majorly disrupt and dilute the value proposition offered by the PR firms.
Estimates predict that the industry is worth over $1 billion in the UAE alone, and employs thousands of people. Attempting to get ahead of the curve, last week the UAE-based Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) held an educational "majlis discussion", which coincided with the launch of new set of standards for AI in the use in the industry.
"Right now, the biggest commodity is time, and when AI can put out a release in 1 minute for 1 dollar, we have to ask if clients will really be willing to pay the same rates," stated Faheem Ahamed, Group Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at G42.
Faheem sits in between the two worlds, one the interchange of technology and PR. On the one hand, he is a seasoned communication expert, and on the other, he works for one of the most disruptive up-and-coming AI companies globally. With his front-seat view of the latest evolutions in large language models, Faheem foresees a major shift in the value proposition of services in the PR industry, with creativity increasingly valued over labour.
"Right now, in our real world, if somebody asks me to do a sketch, if you like it, you might request me for it, and I might give it to you for free. But if someone else has done it and they've got credentials of being a local artist, there might be a value or price that you might give and if you are a renowned artist, you might have a big dent in your wallet," Faheem explained to Aletihad on Thursday.
"This theory and concept exist in our industry. On one end of the spectrum, it's commoditised; it's there as a service, and on the other end, it is seen as a piece of art. I think we will probably see similar models with technology where compensation is for the quality of the product rather than how much labour that you have put in. Ultimately, it's a matter of us arriving at how to compensate for human ingenuity."
With creativity and originality increasingly at the centre of the desirability of PR services, the majlis, which was held at New York University Abu Dhabi, delved into the contentious discussion around intellectual property rights, as several high-profile cases have seen AI companies sued over the use of copyrighted materials to train their models.
Without more rigid boundaries around the use of data, a litany of issues has the potential to cloud the technological advancement offered by AI. The Middle East PR association, which is one of the region's largest alliances of firms, released a set of guidelines on Thursday with the hope of protecting the creative output of its practitioners. The association is voluntary and non-governmental, making its guidelines non-binding. Nevertheless, the groups Chairperson, Kate Midttun, believes the set of rules, the first of its kind in the Middle East, can act as a guide and a benchmark for future conversations.
"The guidelines are quite specific. They state you need to be doing fact-checking, ensuring you are honest and open, and making sure that the information that you're putting out there is truthful," she told Aletihad.
"Make sure that you respect privacy, and ensure any AI tools use follow the rules for keeping people's information private. Treat everyone fairly, so thinking about all of the cultural and learning biases that exist, and just being conscious of those things. And then think about people, and keep learning and improving.
"As with any evolving technology, it's really important to stay up to date with everything that's happening and make sure that you're considering all of the factors that could be moving that mean that you use the tools in the right and the wrong ways as well."
