The Uncanny Cognitive Valley of AI Content

There’s a term coined by Japanese roboticist in the 1970s called the Uncanny Valley. Which is how we get a slight sense of unease or eeriness when we encounter objects that look almost, but not quite human and we know that. Today, with AI posters abounding and beloved by small businesses and non-profits, but despised by consumers, we have, what I call the Uncanny Cognitive Valley. It applies to AI writing too.

I mean Generative AI here like image generators and LLMs. The most common term we hear is “AI Slop”. People have written plenty about “AI tells” such as em dashes and the use of words like “delve” or “quality” and statements of “it’s not X, it’s Y”. The creation of posters that all seem to use the same pattern and design whether it’s for a burger place or a craft market.

Our buying begins with emotions, which are influenced by our cultural upbringing and the culture we live in. We are emotional creatures and we feel things. These are the bits that drive marketers bonkers because measuring emotions and feelings is very hard to do in a quantifiable way.

When I do research for brands around consumer perceptions of AI, it’s very qualitative words being used and to convey what consumers are thinking, I have to tell stories about them. When it comes to creative that uses AI, be it written text, images or video, the words consumers use are always emotional and feeling. Some are declarative in that they “hate” or “despise” AI creative. But those are end statements when they don’t have words to describe what they’re actually feeling, which is eeriness, unease or revulsion.

Even if the content doesn’t use LLMs or image generators, but consumers “feel” it’s being used, it can create the Uncanny Cognitive Valley feeling. And the last thing a brand wants to do is create unease in its target audience. It erodes trust and the social contract between a brand and its audience.

Consumers love good ads, good content when they feel a brand has made an effort to engage with them genuinely. They know that brand had some very clever humans doing clever things to make that good creative. It is anthropologist Marcel Mauss’s concept of the Gift Economy.

So when AI use is seen by consumers, or perceived as being used, it breaks the social contract idea of the Gift Economy and it creates unease. Double whammy.

Just like the uncanny valley in robotics, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able top quantify the uncanny cognitive valley, but it’s there. For brands, you have to figure out the cost of what you’re willing to pay in emotional trust and connection with your audience. Yes, production may be faster and cheaper, but the signal that sends to your customers is read the same way and your brand value erodes each time AI is used in these ways.

AI is a powerful tool for marketing. Especially for research, ideation and operations (MarOps), but for now, it may not be the answer for good creative. Beware the Uncanny Cognitive Valley.