More and more companies use AI technology to put fake employees on their “about us” pages. According to the recent report, numerous firms are employing Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) software to create AI-generated images of fake employees.
I found out about it through a Business Insider report by Evan Ratliff which showed many companies using this technique. My first reaction was pure shock. I kept wondering how many times I have been fooled by AI-generated images. What is more, I kept thinking about how many times I have used services of the companies using these techniques. But my next questions were why do the CEOs do this, and what is their point?
According to the Insider’s report, the point is making the company look bigger than it is. The owners believe an impression of a large workforce improves credibility. They are not wrong. Many researches state that customers tend to think that bigger companies are more professional than smaller ones. Therefore, they are more likely to use their services. I don’t agree with such unethical methods. In my opinion, a small company with as few as three employees can be often better than one with one hundred employees.
Secondly, when it comes to using specially designed AI employees, the CEOs can make the company look more diverse than it is. In other words, they put on “about us” pages people of color, when in reality 99% of their employees are white. Is it ethical? In my opinion, using different cultures and nationalities to boost the company’s performance is not ethical. It is inappropriate to use images of people of color to appear more friendly and open-minded, when these people not long ago suffered from increased unemployment, solely because of the color of their skin. If the company wants to be more diverse, the first thing to do is start employing people of different cultures and nationalities.
So now we all know that some of the employees on “about us” pages can be fake. But how would you react if I told you there is a company that faked all of its workforce? The website of Informa Systems, which has ties to the City of Austin Police Department, was covered with fake images. They faked the images of not only not-so-important employees, but also high-standing ones. They even faked an image of a chief marketing officer. As the research found, only one of the Informa Systems employees was real.
I think using AI to generate images of fake employees is harmful to the customers. This is customer manipulation, and it should be prohibited. Moreover, there should be high fines for such techniques, because they destroy the market.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
References:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-large-business-21007.html
That kind of behavior should be restricted by law. Not only are companies being cheated this way, but they are also losing credibility with customers and investors. It is also not fair to the competition because larger companies can afford such expenses.