The twisted irony of generative AI disclosure
Every second person in Australia is using generative AI, but God forbid the pros have a crack. Writer and marketing communications consultant Brooke Hemphill unpacks the growing movement for disclosure around the use of generative AI.
Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise in Hollywood's biggest AI nightmare
Generative AI has had a busy couple of weeks. By now, you’ve probably seen the AI-generated video of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, created by Seedance 2.0, a tool from ByteDance, the parent company of Tiktok.
The viral clip, which has racked up millions of views, on top of a Seedance-generated reimagining of the Stranger Things ending, earned ByteDance a number of cease and desist letters.
The first came from Disney. The second, Paramount and, finally, Netflix joined the party as the studios and streamers called attention to the front-loading of copyrighted intellectual property, labelling it a “virtual smash-and-grab” of IP.
There’s a twisted irony in fans aggrieved by the alleged use of generative AI in the making of the final season of Stranger Things, then turning to the same technology to reimagine the show’s ending. Apparently, it’s okay for the general population to outsource everything to ChatGPT, but God forbid the pros do it.
According to the Australia Digital Inclusion Index, as of September 2025, almost half of all Australians have used generative AI tools.
But an even bigger statistic is the number of Australians who want to see the disclosure of AI usage in the content they consume. A YouGov study last year found a thumping 87% of Aussies want to know what the gen AI fairies have sprinkled their magic dust on.
The study also found that Australians, historically some of the earliest adopters of technology in the world, are more likely to be concerned about the impact of AI on everyday life compared to other countries.
Of all the demographics, Gen X is the most cautious bunch when it comes to AI generally. Boomers, best known for frequently falling for AI videos, are naturally the most concerned, while Millennials take the prize for most excited. Meanwhile, Gen Z are the most optimistic.
But guess who most wants the explicit disclosure of generative AI. It’s Gen Z.
In the words of Whitney Houston, I believe the children are our future. With that in mind, generative AI’s days as a dirty little secret are clearly numbered.
There’s already a growing movement toward gen AI disclosure. Over in the gaming space, questions are being asked whether developers are using generative AI to build immersive worlds, with gamers keen to know if they are or not.
Film sales house The Mise En Scene Company caught people’s attention at this year’s European Film Market by adding a “No AI Used” label to its marketing collateral, inspired by a similar disclaimer at the end of horror movie Heretic. The company is now calling for an industry standard to be established around AI disclosure in films.
Back on home soil, the Commercial Radio Code of Practice has recently had an update. From July 1, radio stations will be required to let audiences know when a synthetic voice is used, but only when it’s for a regularly scheduled program or news broadcast. Which leaves a whole lot of wiggle room for AI use on the ol’ wireless.
The IAB has introduced its first-ever AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework in the US, to guide AI reporting in marketing. According to the framework, brands and agencies need to declare when AI materially affects authenticity, identity, or representation in ways that could mislead consumers.
Still, advertisers should carefully weigh the benefits of using gen AI, especially given the stats guiding the IAB’s framework. Gen Z consumers, IAB research shows, are nearly twice as likely as Millennials to feel negatively toward AI ads, going so far as to describe brands using it as “manipulative” or “unethical”.
AI disclosure is starting to feel like an inevitability.
But here’s the kicker. A wide-scale study of people from a range of professions and backgrounds found that disclosing AI use actually makes people trust you less. Across 13 experiments involving more than 5,000 participants, researchers discovered that fessing up undermines how trustworthy you are.
And now is so not the time to be messing with trust in your organisation. A quick check-in with the Edelman Trust Barometer tells us that Australians have a general distrust of business, government, media, and even NGOs. And it’s progressively getting worse.
When it comes to generative AI, you’re damned if you do, whether you tell people you did or not.
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Great piece Brooke.
there’s one way ‘not to be damned’… don’t use it
The bold assumption that “Every second person in Australia is using generative AI” seems to a bit bold.
I bet that if the collected time of the whole month spent by all AI users during the month was reported, that the average time per person would be surprising.