Ecommerce Management Advisors
Ecommerce Management Advisors
BBC study finds leading AI chatbots consistently distort news content, raising concerns about information accuracy and trust.
Study shows Americans trust AI more than social media, with young men expressing the highest confidence.
We’re officially entering a new era: the content overload era.
Content is no longer seen as a nice to have but a must for the majority of businesses.
The sheer volume of content being created and published daily across the web is astounding, to say the least – WordPress alone sees about 70 million new posts each month.
Knowing this could send content marketers into a frenzy, scrambling to crank out more content to keep up with demand. But quantity alone isn’t the only marker for content success.
The content overload era has done more than just spark the need for more; it prompted a reliance on tools and technology.
One such tool that has made its way into nearly every content marketer’s toolkit is artificial intelligence (AI). Its ability to streamline mundane processes quickly and with minimal effort has made it a crowd favorite for many content marketing professionals.
As more content marketers turn to AI to help with the content brainstorming, development, and distribution process, it raises one poignant question: Are we sacrificing quality for speed?
While unclear at first, it’s now more evident than ever that AI is here to stay and holds the potential to become an ally for content marketers when used right – a tool used for support rather than as a standalone solution.
In this post, we’ll explore how to amplify your content marketing efforts the right way, strengthening your trust with your audience.
You’ll learn how to cut through the noise to reach your target audience amid emerging tools, tactics, and technology.
You’ll walk away feeling confident in how to effectively reach and engage with your audience without relying solely on AI for your content marketing efforts.
Every second of the day, an influx of content is published across myriad platforms such as email, social media, websites, and more.
Consumers are inundated with content, having to sift through the mountains of information to find what is most relevant to their needs.
Vying for their time and attention can be difficult, especially when your competitors, and even those in different verticals, are attempting to do the same.
The rise of AI technology presents another challenge. Some content marketers and businesses are turning to AI to draft and publish content quickly.
Given its accessibility and capabilities, AI is becoming an easy way to churn out content, although a study has pointed to decreases in search engine visibility with AI-generated content.
The consistent, steady stream of content options can lead to what many refer to as “information overload,” where consumers become overwhelmed with the endless content options at their fingertips.
Information overload makes it increasingly difficult for brands to stand out. Additionally, algorithms are becoming attuned to understanding consumer preferences, surfacing, and prioritizing content based on relevance and engagement.
Generic content marketing strategies no longer suffice. Smart and savvy strategies are required in the ultra-fierce race for audience attention.
Content isn’t being served in one single location. Long gone are the days of direct mail, email, and blogs being the main content forces to reckon with. The battle for attention is more arduous than ever.
With the emergence of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, content creation is no longer just in written form but rather through captivating photos, audio, and video formats.
Innovative content marketing approaches are necessary to truly build trust and differentiate your content from others.
Hyper-targeted content, personalization, and strategic AI usage are among those approaches that lead to the path to content marketing mastery.
Imagine shouting into a void, one so massive and wide-reaching that your voice barely penetrates the surface.
The effort exerted to scream your message wouldn’t be worthwhile as no one would hear a word you say. Unfortunately, this example is all too common in the world of digital marketing.
Despite the most earnest efforts, marketers don’t effectively reach their audience due to poor segmentation or not understanding the audience at a granular level.
By analyzing key data points – like demographic, psychographic, and behavior data – brands can tap into what motivates their target audience most.
Content can then be delivered more effectively to the right audience at the right time with the right message.
Tools like Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, and email and social media marketing platforms are becoming more intelligent, enabling businesses to gain a deeper understanding of their audience through deeper insights.
These insights may reveal the best time of day to send a message, what locations are receiving the most traffic, the top-performing email nurture sequence to send new customers, and much more.
Generic content no longer works. Instead, successful content marketers focus on niche markets, delivering highly relevant content that addresses a specific pain point.
For example, a popular pet retailer offers numerous specialty services to their customers. Bundling all this information on one landing page can cause confusion, leading to lower click-through rates and, in turn, less revenue.
By adding specialty landing pages with unique content for each of their services offered, such as vaccinations, aquatics, grooming, and more, the pet retailer saw dramatic increases in organic search traffic.
Understanding your audience is imperative, and content must match the needs of the individual.
Additionally, this level of segmentation can help customers build trust with your business, perceiving you as a trusted resource that truly understands their needs.
They no longer feel like just another email contact on your massive send list.
Hyper-targeted content requires more than cranking out AI-generated content. It requires human oversight to ensure segmentation is correct, the message isn’t generic, and your content matches the audience’s unique needs.
AI can be great for helping you brainstorm content ideas for your niche audience; however, a human copywriter is necessary to truly get the message over the line.
Addressing a prospect by their first name isn’t personalization.
Content personalization extends far beyond simply knowing the names of your customers. Modern content consumers expect more out of businesses in order to trust them enough to purchase.
They expect content that aligns with their unique needs, such as surfacing previously frequent purchases or highlighting a book that’s similar in style to the last book a customer read.
Customers are savvy, and if they’re presented with options that don’t align with their preferences, they’ll look elsewhere.
Think of Amazon, for example. Amazon’s algorithms are intelligent enough to highlight a product within a certain time period based on the buyer’s purchase history.
For example, a customer might buy Vitamin D supplements every three months. Amazon will likely show this product to the consumer around the time a refill is needed, streamlining and optimizing the path to purchase.
Revenue can be strongly tied to personalization. A HubSpot report found that segmented emails can boost opens by 30% and click-throughs by 50%, highlighting the value of personalization.
Personalization walks a fine line. It shows you care about your customers by sharing more relevant content that matches their needs; however, privacy must be considered.
Algorithms are becoming more intelligent by analyzing and refining their content distribution strategies. This requires customer data, a subject that breeds concern and calls ethics into question.
It’s crucial for businesses to share how, when, and where customer data is collected. Disclose this clearly on your website and in your content in a clearly visible and easy-to-locate location.
Transparency is key to winning trust and credibility.
Many marketers have jumped aboard the AI bandwagon – 64% are already using it. Despite its prominent adoption, AI is seen as both a blessing and a curse.
On one hand, it has significantly impacted the way we work, streamlining tasks and delivering quick results.
On the other, it leads to duplicated content, information bias, irrelevant content, and an abundance of content that all sounds the same.
In fact, over half (60%) are concerned AI will harm their brand’s reputation through bias, plagiarism, or misalignment with brand values.
AI, when used responsibly, can enhance content marketing. However, the tool itself can’t mitigate concerns associated with its usage for content marketing specifically.
Only humans hold the power to truly transform the content experience and eliminate the over-reliance on AI for content creation.
Use cases for AI for content marketers:
Relying solely on AI for content creation comes with inherent risks.
AI-generated content often lacks authenticity and loses the author’s unique tone of voice. It can sound the same, reading too crisp and polished.
It loses the human element – interjecting the emotion and spark human writers accomplish that AI simply can’t.
Successful brands recognize AI can enhance human creativity, but it is not meant as a replacement.
Human ingenuity helps to build trust and shines your business in a more positive light.
Content marketing strategies work best when used in tandem.
For example, a retailer might use AI to extract common themes in customer feedback, hyper-targeted content to promote relevant content based on customer feedback within a specific region, and personalize outreach with product recommendations based on the buyer’s behavior.
This all-encompassing approach not only improves customer experience but holds the potential to improve return on investment (ROI) as well.
As with any marketing strategy, measurement is a must. Keep a pulse on your wins as well as your opportunities for enhancement.
A firm understanding of metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement metrics across all platforms helps you spot what’s working and what isn’t.
The dual content overload and AI era has just begun, and the way content marketers used to reach customers will no longer suffice.
Instead, as marketers, we must work diligently to bridge the trust gap that exists between customers and brands.
This has become an increasingly tough task given the advancement of AI technology, where it can be tough to discern who’s behind the messaging – a human or a machine.
Marketers must focus on ethics and transparency to ensure every message they craft is meaningful, useful, and relevant.
By using AI as a supportive tool, adopting hyper-targeted campaigns, and leveraging personalization strategies, brands will create customer experiences that land with their audience.
Content will continue to grow at an astounding pace, but the brands that prioritize top-notch content and connection will continue to stand out.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
The U.S. Copyright Office has released a report on how current laws apply to content created by AI.
It affirms that AI can assist with the creative process, but only works that include meaningful human input can be copyrighted.
Here’s what you need to know about copyrighting AI-generated content.
The report states that AI-generated output can only receive copyright protection if a human adds significant creative input.
This input might include:
However, just giving prompts to an AI system without any extra creative input doesn’t qualify for copyright.
The Copyright Office believes current copyright laws can adapt to content made by AI.
They point to past examples of copyright principles changing to accommodate photography, computer code, and other new technologies.
The report doesn’t support immediate changes to the law.
Here’s what this means for artists, writers, and businesses using AI tools:
The Copyright Office will examine issues like AI training data and licensing in future reports.
Ongoing lawsuits might influence how courts interpret these rules.
This report is part of the U.S. Copyright Office’s AI Initiative launched in 2023. The first part focused on digital replicas and voice cloning, while future sections will address AI training data, licensing, and liability.
We understand you may still have questions, and we’ll do our best to answer them with quotes pulled directly from the report.
A:
“Questions of copyrightability and AI can be resolved pursuant to existing law, without the need for legislative change.”
A:
“Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.”
A:
“The use of AI tools to assist rather than stand in for human creativity does not affect the availability of copyright protection for the output.”
A:
“Prompts alone do not provide sufficient human control to make users of an AI system the authors of the output.”
A:
“Human authors are entitled to copyright in their works of authorship that are perceptible in AI-generated outputs, as well as the creative selection, coordination, or arrangement of material in the outputs, or creative modifications of the outputs.”
A:
“The case has not been made for additional copyright or sui generis protection for AI-generated content.”
A:
“In the European Union, the majority of member states agreed, in response to a 2024 policy questionnaire on the relationship between generative AI and copyright, that current copyright principles adequately address the copyright eligibility of AI outputs and there is no need to provide new or additional protection.”
A:
“Discussing creators with disabilities, another noted that “AI acts as a tool in the hands of an author,” rather than a source of expressive content.
The Office strongly supports the empowerment of all creators, including those with disabilities. We stress that to the extent these functionalities are used as tools to recast, transform, or adapt an author’s expression, copyright protection would be available for the resulting work.”
Read the full report and access registration examples at copyright.gov/AI.
Featured Image: Family Stock/Shutterstock
Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge published results on current AI Search trends, showing that Google AI Overviews (AIO) has expanded its presence by up to 100% in increasingly complex search queries. The changes suggest growing confidence in AI for search, with indications that Google is relying on authoritativeness and greater precision in context awareness for matching queries to answers, particularly in relation to content modality.
The data shows that AI Overviews (AIO) has evolved from showing featured snippet style answers to being capable of handling multi-turn, complex search queries. The takeaway is that Google is increasingly comfortable with AI’s ability to surface precise answers for longer queries and this is a trend that may continue to rise.
Google continues to show confidence in their AI Overviews (AIO) search feature as BrightEdge has discovered that more keyword phrases are triggering AI answers now than at any point since the feature was rolled out last year.
25% of search queries using 8 words or more are displaying AI Overviews (AIO), which is a clear upward trend indicating that Google continues to refine the accuracy of AIO and is better able to handle increasingly complex search queries.
A graph shows how the keywords with 8, 9, and 10 words continued to increasingly show AI Overviews
Keyword phrases with less than four words continue to show an increasing amount of AIO but the growth in longer more precise keywords is growing significantly faster.
BrightEdge provided additional data that looks at specific topic categories, showing how queries for some topics consolidating to answers from big brand sites.
For example, in the healthcare category where accuracy and trustworthiness are paramount Google is increasingly showing search results from just a handful of websites. Content from authoritative medical research centers account for 72% of AI Overview answers, which is an increase from 54% of all queries at the start of January.
15-22% of B2B technology search queries are derived from the top five technology companies such as Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft.
BrightEdge data reveals that AIO answers follow certain patterns that reveal qualities that Google feels make content more relevant.
For educational queries AIO shows a preference toward concise answers with a clean visual presentation. In the below example Google is hiding content that has additional information that answers additional questions beyond the main query. This may relate to Google’s information gain patent which is about anticipating additional information that a user will be interested in after receiving the answer to their original search query.
An interesting pattern picked up by BrightEdge is that YouTube technical tutorials have increased by 40% in AIO while health related queries that show YouTube videos are trending downward by 31%.
Of particular interest is that the high volume search queries (100k+ search volume) that trigger YouTube content have decreased by 18.7%. This may reflect a change in user needs and Google’s ability to identify that context and understand that it’s not served well by video content.
What all of this means is that it’s increasingly important to think about context awareness, the appropriateness of the content to the query. The question to ask is what kind of content best serves the context and to expand that answer across modalities like images, sound, video, and text, then within those formats think in terms of how-to, data dump, informative, etc.
BrightEdge observes:
“Most Interesting Pattern:
AI Overviews are developing sophisticated, context-aware citation models. While YouTube citations are declining for health queries (e.g., “symptoms,” “diet”), they’re increasing for technical how-to content, jumping from 2.0% to 2.8% of citations in this category.Pay Attention:
1. Context is King – Focus video content where it’s gaining traction (technical tutorials, DIY) and pivot to text for topics where traditional authority is preferred (health, finance)
2. Match Your Industry’s Pattern – In sectors with distributed authority (like B2B tech at 15-22% per source), focus on direct citations; in consolidated spaces (like healthcare at 72% institutional),partner with established authorities
3. Monitor Actively – With citation patterns shifting dramatically in just one month, weekly monitoring of your space is crucial to spot new opportunities before competitors”
A way to make sense of the data is that it Google AI Overviews appear to be increasingly relying on the authoritativeness of the content as the stakes go higher with more complex search queries.
Authoritativeness isn’t just about being a big brand but it may have to do with simply being meaningful to the Internet audience as a go-to source for a particular topic. Trustworthiness and other related factors are important and this has nothing to do with superficial SEO activities like author bios and so on.
Read the data:
How AI Giants Are Carving Distinct Territory in the Search Landscape
Looking back on last year, fake content has reached new highs, challenging marketers to stand out with authentic, engaging campaigns that resonate with increasingly skeptical audiences.
Overly polished or shallow content – such as slick paid media attempts, spammy posts, or poorly executed AI-generated content – is increasing, creating challenges for marketers to stand out with original material.
Fake content can also impact ad performance and SEO rankings thanks to Google prioritizing helpful, authentic content.
Note that the FTC has released a final rule and banned fake reviews and testimonials in August 2024, which includes AI-generated fake reviews, and encouraged brands to reevaluate their contracts with influencers and ensure compliance.
In this article, I will outline five things that marketers need to know to avoid the pitfalls of inauthentic content.
According to a 2023 survey, over 70% are concerned about deepfakes that circulate on social media.
My educated guess is that audiences are turned off by misleading content and that they are looking for new platforms, like Threads, to stay connected in a positive way by sharing bite-sized anecdotes with real people instead of bots and sales-focused influencers.
Brands sharing real advice like workplace challenges and authentic storytelling can resonate with audiences in specific industries, be it lifestyle brands or B2B SaaS platforms.
Across TikTok and Instagram, and even Threads, sharing pro advice and motivational tips has always been a trend. Examples include Grammarly’s writing productivity tips on Threads and Nike’s #1000Victories 19-part documentary campaign featuring women in sport community.
Check out this guide on how you can create interactive posts to engage communities on social.
For online shops, here’s an example of a content creator promoting other small businesses for free to potential customers. The desire to reciprocate is a result of the very emphatic conversations and experiences many have shared, prompting each other to become motivated and best practices for industry and protect their livelihood.
By simply listening to people talk about it, truly caring, and engaging in the comments section with the original posters, these interactions create a sense of community in a way that AI or paid sponsorships can’t replicate.
Three in four consumers are worried about fake reviews and 63% think brands should be solving this. These insights highlight evolving expectations for brands to put up a fight and to maintain their trust.
49% of U.S. consumers are confident they have seen fake reviews on Amazon for 2024.
But how easy are they to spot?
It’s not easy to spot at all.
While it can be hard to tell the difference with text (AI art is easier to spot), there are ways to detect it.
Researchers from the University of Michigan used a dataset of 10,000 real and fake hotel reviews in 10 languages to find differences:
“Despite the difficulty humans have in distinguishing between real hotel reviews and those generated by LLMs, we discovered that these posts have noticeable differences in style, structure, and semantics.” (read: MAiDE-up: Multilingual Deception Detection of GPT-generated Hotel Reviews).
A research group at the University of Pennsylvania proves that people can be trained to tell the difference.
They also partnered with CNN to demonstrate how to discern between AI and human-written text and how fact-checking and logic can spell the difference.
If more and more people are trained to fact-check and present their findings in the comments section, it becomes more difficult to pass off AI-generated content as human.
Around 31% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about AI. Digital marketers need to be aware of how AI-generated content can backfire, especially for highly regulated fields like Law, Medicine, and Media, Finance.
Deceptive affiliates on YouTube exaggerate “must-haves” and promote products by exclaiming, “Run, don’t walk to the store.”
There are sponsored product reviews by influencers who have never even tried the retail products yet recommend them, and audiences become skeptical and unfollow or unsubscribe.
Because de-influencing content has become very popular over the past year, it could lead to less revenue and a negative reputation for your brand. Among the business categories: Technology, Fashion/Beauty/Wellness, Food/Beverage, and Travel/Hospitality – the fashion/beauty/wellness category has been hit the hardest.
Meanwhile, Instagram influencer fraud was found at 49% in 2023 (buying followers, likes, stories, views, etc.). And according to The Hyper Auditor’s internal research, only 55% of Instagram followers are real people. But these platforms are trying to push back.
Yelp had started removing fake reviews and cracked down on fraudulent groups in 2022. Meta has started requiring an AI label on generated posts, too.
Amazon and Google have filed against a fake reviews broker website in October 2024. The latter is also part of The Coalition of Trusted Reviews with other highly popular booking and review sites.
As more and more platforms and consumers fight against fake content, your brand must verify content authenticity and discourage misleading sponsored ads in other to maintain trust in your platform or product on the platform.
Instagram seems to have become a highlight reel of everyone’s picture-perfect moments: Weddings, travel, shiny purchases, and branded outfits. However, not everyone can relate to high-end living, so take note, marketers of aspirational brands.
Threads, the microblogging app built by the Instagram people, allows brands to foster real conversations and share relatable messaging. People from all walks of life, regardless of education, language, and nationality, share perspectives through their life stories or give free professional advice.
This is an example of a service business that personalized his handyman content on Threads and found success in the community aside from his recent achievement of 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. Learn how short-form storytelling works on Threads and try it out.
This kind of user-generated content without the ad-heavy feed drives community as more and more users can relate to and reply to these posts.
User-generated content posts that look and feel like everyday life will resonate better with communities on Threads. With this type of content, brands can humanize their storytelling and build trust over time.
There are practical roles for AI in content creation, but there are limits when it comes to creating art with emotional impact.
While the AI Coke ads may not have performed as expected, their holiday campaign, Create Real Magic invited fans to create images with ChatGPT-4 and DALL-E using their own archive of assets, successfully appealing to their target Gen Z and Millennial audiences.
For B2B SaaS, AI can be a product offering that ties in seamlessly with your platform. An example is Canva launched More Canva Magic! AI Music Generators which empowers creators to create custom soundtracks for presentations, videos, and social media legally using royalty-free music.
For retailers, it’s nice to know that customers see AI-generated summaries of product reviews as a top feature, and is great to read alongside actual human reviews. Nike’s “By You” uses AI to help customers design their own shoes. Context and execution matter when it comes to AI-produced content using new technology, and campaigns that require active participation seem to be more successful.
42% of marketers use generative AI to make social media copy. Make sure content is fact-checked by copywriters and editors, integrating a workflow that can catch inaccuracies.
This year, now more than ever, it’s important to build and maintain meaningful customer relationships to stay relevant in 2025. Consumers (64%) wish for brands to connect with them, underlining the growing demand for genuine engagement.
In order to meet this expectation, brands need to align their values, humanize their content, and be consistent in their messaging to foster audiences’ trust.
Back in 2022, the SEC fined Kim Kardashian $1.26 million after she was caught promoting cryptocurrency, EthereumMax, without disclosure of her paid partnership.
For influencers, disclosing paid ads partnered with a brand is essential instead of passing it off as organic. The European Commission found 97% of published content with commercial intent, but only 20% disclosed it. Brands need to ensure that the influencers hired follow FTC guidelines.
Additionally, if you use AI when creating content, disclose or add labels for the AI technologies you use.
If you follow FTC guidelines, brands and influencers who are honest can thrive with meaningful connections and steer clear of the backlash surrounding fake content.
I personally believe that authenticity is the foundation for social media success. As social media evolves and AI becomes more sophisticated, authenticity is no longer optional – it’s vital.
By prioritizing genuine connections and transparent content, marketers can build trust, drive engagement, and secure their place in the digital future.
More tools are cropping up to filter out the noise and more mods on every platform serve as a village watch group to protect misinformation.
Brands, creators, and platforms could hypothetically run 100% fake content with fake bots spamming the comments to seem engaging. But, real people will exit, and it’ll reflect poorly on the brand and actual product sales.
As online consumers, we are growing in social awareness and learning to discern every post, so it’s time for marketers to ensure their social media strategy addresses that.
If you want to thrive as a business, you need to strive to commit to genuine connections and spark conversations naturally. If you want attention, then what you offer needs to be worthy of it.
Run authenticity audits of your content, listen to customer pain points, and create campaigns that truly resonate with them.
More Resources:
Featured Image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock
You.com AI Assistant and Search announced the deployment of the new open-source DeepSeek AI model, joining advanced models from Anthropic, Meta, Grok, and OpenAI. DeepSeek-R1 is safely hosted on U.S. servers, ensuring that no user data is sent overseas.
DeepSeek-R1 is a new reasoning model developed in China that has shaken up the AI technology space because of its high performance and novel training methodology which dramatically lowered costs. The model was released as open source which allows anyone to download it, customize it and host it on their own servers, which is what You.com did.
You.com is a free AI assistant and search engine that provides access to top AI models at lower rates than their individual subscriptions. For example, users that pay $15/month can take advantage of OpenAI’s models for tasks they excel at, then switch to Anthropic’s Claude for creative work, where many find it superior, without the need to subscribe to both services. That’s a saving of approximately $25/month for access to models that cost about $20/month.
You.com Pro users can access DeepSeek’s model in addition to all the other available models. The official You.com X (formerly Twitter) account tweeted:
“@deepseek_ai is officially live at you(dot)com. The hype is real, and it’s spectacular 🔥
DeepSeek R1 & V3 are crushing benchmarks and pushing the boundaries of what LLMs can do. Give them a spin and see why everyone’s buzzing.”
Richard Socher, You.com’s CEO and founder, tweeted:
“@deepseek_ai’s AI models are officially live at ydc. This is the best way to test out these great models and have them be accurate and up-to-date.
For folks worried about their data or China: We do not use the official API, there is zero data retention for our enterprise users and the servers are in the US. The magic of open source dispels these concerns.”
He followed up that tweet with another one accompanied by a screenshot showing how DeepSeek takes a little extra time to output because it’s a reasoning model that takes multiple steps to generate the output.
Socher observed:
“I like how it says that one source confirms the information from another source.
Because of the more advanced reasoning, it is slower that our default modes for now.”
You.com offers users an exceptional AI Assistant that allows users to choose between different AI models at essentially discounted prices, enabling users to be more productive at a competitive price.
DeepSeek’s terms of use contain requirements that may make users reconsider using the app, as they could shift the balance between benefits and perceived risks by imposing significant financial obligations. One such requirement makes users liable for travel and litigation expenses if they violate the terms and the violation results in legal action.
Nobody reads the terms of use and sometimes businesses will have fun with that by burying Easter eggs in the terms to see how long it takes before someone notices. For example, Amazon used to have an acceptable use policy for a game engine they distributed that said they don’t apply in the event of an actual zombie apocalypse.
Here’s an excerpt from an archived Amazon TOS Easter egg:
“However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.”
But the terms of use published by DeepSeek in section 7.2 are no joke and users of the service and app should consider reading the them.
The section has three parts that are fairly standard.
The first part establishes their right to “independently” make decisions about moderating the use of their services including taking “measures against you.” Again, this is fairly standard.
“In response to your violation of these Terms or other service terms, DeepSeek reserves the right to independently judge and take measures against you, including issuing warnings, setting deadlines for correction, restricting account functions, suspending usage, closing accounts, prohibiting re-registration, deleting relevant content, etc., without the need for prior notification. We have the right to announce the results of the actions taken and, based on the actual circumstances, decide whether to restore usage.”
The second part affirms their right to keep records of activities that may violate laws or regulations and turn them over to the “competent authorities.”
“For behaviors suspected of violating laws and regulations or involving illegal activities, relevant records will be retained, and reports will be made to the competent authorities in accordance with the law, cooperating with their investigations.”
The following part shifts a load of legal liabilities on users, including travel expenses and the costs for collecting evidence and for paying fines.
It reads:
“You shall be solely responsible for any legal liabilities, claims, demands, or losses asserted by third parties resulting therefrom, and you shall compensate us for any losses incurred, including litigation fees, arbitration fees, attorney fees, notary fees, announcement fees, appraisal fees, travel expenses, investigation and evidence collection fees, compensation, liquidated damages, settlement costs, and administrative fines incurred in protecting our rights.”
A key point about DeepSeek’s terms of use is that there’s a section that says a consumer’s legal rights cannot be changed or taken away by agreeing to the terms of use. So any laws that protect a consumer cannot be overridden by agreeing to the terms of use.
DeepSeek’s terms affirms those legal rights:
“Nothing in these terms shall affect any statutory rights that you cannot contractually agree to alter or waive and are legally always entitled to as a consumer.”
I recently was messaging with friends who are a part of the digital marketing industry and they mentioned that they had downloaded the DeepSeek app because it’s a part of their business to be aware of the latest technologies. I showed them the above terms of use and one of my friends commented that this specific section went far beyond what they were comfortable with. Another friend in that conversation also decided to immediately deleted the app.
Terms of use are fairly comprehensive in what they cover, and it’s not unusual for companies to use them to shield themselves from legal consequences. However, because the company is based in China, where information control, censorship, and data transparency issues are well-documented, some may be more cautious, while others may see the benefits as outweighing any perceived risks.
Read the DeepSeek terms of use here.
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI chatbot topping App Store downloads, has scored poorly in NewsGuard’s latest accuracy assessment.
According to NewsGuard’s audit:
“[the chatbot] failed to provide accurate information about news and information topics 83 percent of the time, ranking it tied for 10th out of 11 in comparison to its leading Western competitors.”
Key Findings:
DeepSeek‘s responses show a notable pattern. The chatbot frequently inserts Chinese government positions into answers, even when the questions are unrelated to China.
For example, when asked about a situation in Syria, DeepSeek responded:
“China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, believing that the Syrian people have the wisdom and capability to handle their own affairs.”
Despite DeepSeek’s claims of matching OpenAI’s capabilities with just $5.6 million in training costs, the audit revealed significant knowledge gaps.
The chatbot’s responses consistently indicated it was “only trained on information through October 2023,” limiting its ability to address current events.
NewsGuard found that:
“DeepSeek was most vulnerable to repeating false claims when responding to malign actor prompts of the kind used by people seeking to use AI models to create and spread false claims.”
Of particular concern:
“Of the nine DeepSeek responses that contained false information, eight were in response to malign actor prompts, demonstrating how DeepSeek and other tools like it can easily be weaponized by bad actors to spread misinformation at scale.”
The assessment comes at a critical time in the AI race between China and the United States.
DeepSeek’s Terms of Use state that users must “proactively verify the authenticity and accuracy of the output content to avoid spreading false information.”
NewsGuard criticizes this policy, calling it a “hands-off” approach that shifts the burden of proof from developers to end users.
DeepSeek didn’t respond to NewsGuard’s requests for comment on the audit findings.
From now on, DeepSeek will be included in NewsGuard’s monthly AI audits. Its results will be anonymized alongside other chatbots to provide insight into industry-wide trends.
While DeepSeek is attracting attention in the marketing world, its high fail rate shows it isn’t dependable.
Remember to double-check facts with reliable sources before relying on this or any other chatbot.
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Perplexity AI has integrated the new Chinese DeepSeek AI model into their offerings, allowing their Pro level users to use DeepSeek for their Perplexity AI research. Some in the public reacted negatively to the news.
Perplexity AI is San Francisco based AI search engine that offers a different way to search for information by leveraging web content and large language models. There is also a Pro Search version that allows unlimited file uploads, can generate images and offers a choice between multiple popular AI models like OpenAI o1 and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5.
Now it’s offering DeepSeek R1 as one of the available choices for Pro Users. The announcement was met with misconceptions about what was being offered, including unfounded accusations that Perplexity DeepSeek data would be accessible to the Chinese communist government and that the search results would be censored.
Aravind Srinivas, Cofounder and CEO of Perplexity, commented on LinkedIn about the controversy:
“All DeepSeek usage in Perplexity is through models hosted in data centers in the USA and Europe. DeepSeek is *open-source*. None of your data goes to China.”
The CEO also took to X (formerly Twitter) to reassure users that the model they are using is not censored, posting a screenshot of an uncensored response to demonstrate that the version of DeepSeek R1 in use at Perplexity is not censored
Anyone can download the DeepSeek AI model and use it locally but the model as-is will be censored since it’s only good as the data it was trained on. The Register downloaded and tested multiple models of DeepSeek and concluded that it is indeed censored:
“Is it censored?
Oh yeah. It is. Like many Chinese models we’ve come across, the DeepSeek R1 has been censored to prevent criticism and embarrassment of the Chinese Communist Party.Ask R1 about sensitive topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and we found it would outright refuse to entertain the question and attempt to redirect the conversation to a less politically sensitive topic.
…Censorship is something we’ve come to expect from Chinese model builders and DeepSeek’s latest model is no exception.”
However, as Perplexity AI’s CEO Aravind Srinivas showed, the model can be uncensored. Contrary to some commenters on the LinkedIn discussion, a self-hosted model does not phone home back to China, everything is contained within the local environment.
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