At Voxel Hub, our mission is to support good digital wellbeing. One of the key, critical aspects of our work is to do our best to avoid dark patterns in our design and marketing and remain transparent about how we operate. Hence, we do not offer ebooks linking to newsletter subscription, and our Privacy Policy is simple and clear. We keep our client records securely, especially those related to counselling and client work, of course. However, how we work and how our marketing is organised is centred around supporting, not tricking clients into loyalty. Despite the well-established UK GDPR law, we receive offers to scale our leads and purchase mailing lists DAILY. Sometimes, when I have the time and energy to respond, I do.
Today, I am writing an important update on something that has been entering mainstream workplace processes for quite a few years and entered the general public discourse (in my experience) last year – the AI tools. This year, we are starting to see some relevant statistics on AI use and attitudes, too (here’s just one example); however, we do not seem to be talking about AI disclosures or policies. The majority of AI experts support the AI disclosures. We know that consumers want AI disclosures, but are 49% less likely to buy from a brand that posts AI content. Ethan Mollick writes about the additional aspect of AI use: readers of AI-generated content believe it less if they know it was generated by AI.
So, what do we think at Voxel Hub? Well, as always, first thing I am going to say: it is complicated. AI tools are growing in popularity, and it can be incredibly tempting to use them for ideas and content generation to save on time, resources and energy. Managers and company owners who are under a lot of economic pressure may find AI solutions incredibly helpful. Business owners who designed their companies to exploit people for a lot of gain and very little investment may find AI solutions perfect for the job.
However, I would encourage a different question: where are we rushing, and what are we saving this energy and resources for? Providing our business is ethical, and by extension, planned to allow for rest, emergency resources and supportive services, what is the ACTUAL case for the use of AI tools to hack and hack and hack? If we aim to nurture our clients’ wellbeing and calm existence, while also supporting our staff, wouldn’t it make more sense to support creatives, researchers and other team members?
My take on Voxel Hub was always clear: we are open and support the wellbeing of all our stakeholders. Our aim is to promote a healthy life balance in the digital age. Our marketing is designed to explain who we are, what we do, but also to support our clients, not to mislead them. So today, we have updated our privacy policy with the following AI Disclaimer:
“We believe in full AI transparency. This website contains original, human-generated content only. Occasionally, we may conduct AI experiments on our blog with clear AI disclosure.”
In practice, this means that you will occasionally see some AI-generated content, always explained and honestly described. We run AI experiments to test the new tools and improve our own digital literacy only. Otherwise, all our content is original. Our business plan is original. Our digital wellbeing content and wellbeing scale are original – I personally developed it based on my experience and training. What you see has been created by me and my ethically paid contributor friends.
We like to support creators, and we value technology too. We believe that innovation can be helpful – I am sure it is life-saving in many industries, such as medicine, transport, and research (if validated). However, in terms of digital marketing and content creation, we stay with the original, human-generated content. So when you read our content, rest assured that if we ever use AI to generate it, you will be informed about it. If you see no AI disclaimers in our blog posts, enjoy the beautifully imperfect support from the bottom of our human hearts.
Thank you for reading us!
