emotionsmatter.

32

THE

PHRASEE

PHILOSOPHY

An open letter from the Phrasee phounders

We launched the Emotions Matter

campaign to do the right thing.

For years, marketers have been

encouraged to use spurious tactics

to get people to buy more stuff. Too

often we’ve heard it said that people

buy because of fear or greed, so to

get them to buy more stuff from you,

you need to make them feel scared

or greedy.

As our lives are so inherently online

now and we’re marketed to online

all the time, the words, phrases,

images and tactics that marketers

use have a real effect on consumers.

If these messages are making people

feel afraid and anxious or inspiring

greed, this has a real impact on

mental health.

We think it’s high time that marketers

take responsibility for their actions

and realise there is more to what

they do than just selling a few

more widgets. All of us involved in

marketing bear a responsibility to

people, to treat them like actual

humans and move away from

using fear and anxiety to sell

more products.

At Phrasee, it’s very important to us

as a team that we remove some of

the stigma around mental health

and that marketers do not exploit it.

Marketing is about getting your

message out to market and about

shifting product, but you can do this

in a positive way by talking about

the good things and the positive

things you bring to market. We want

to encourage people to move away

from cynical fear tactics and move

towards positive tactics.

A good example is how Phrasee

markets itself – we could be like

those who say if you don’t do this,

you could be in big trouble or really

missing out, but instead, we take a

positive approach and encourage

people to look at the positivity they

can bring into the world.

We need to do something to

actively prevent the problems from

happening in the first place, to

expediate the solution instead of

exacerbating the problem. As part of

this campaign, we have published

our Phrasee ethics policy. There

are not too many companies out

there outwardly sharing their ethics

policies and we’d like to be a leader

in this field, sharing our promises and

standing by them. We will clearly

state that we will not use technology

to explicitly exploit vulnerable groups.

Parry, Neil & Vic

contents

The Phrasee Philosophy

A starter guide to ethical marketing

AI will transform marketing

Stand against fear & anxiety

Market differently

Learn from the key players

Spotlight sessions

Word up from senior marketers

Technology’s role in mental health

AI ethics policy | Why everyone should have one

AI ethics policy | …and here’s ours

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STARTERGUIDE TOETHICAL MARKETING

A

A collection of thought-provoking articles and advice from senior figures and highly respected brands in the marketing space, to start changing the conversation around fear and anxiety-based marketing.

76

DISCUSSIONSGET ACTIVE AND INVOLVED IN““

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ai will transform marketingBut let’s talk ethics first- Paul Roetzer, Founder and CEO, Marketing AI Institute

We are about to enter an age

where awe-inspiring artificial

intelligence technologies will

increasingly power our countries,

companies, and lives.

In the marketing industry,

professionals who can harness

the power of AI will be able to do

more with less, run personalized

campaigns of unprecedented

complexity, and transform

business-as-usual through new

methods of machine-intelligent

marketing.

The potential business opportunity

is massive. AI has the potential

to unlock $2.6 trillion in business

value in marketing and sales alone,

according to McKinsey.

There’s just one problem. As

an industry, as citizens and as

professionals, we’re woefully

underprepared to deal with the

major ethical challenges presented

by this technology.

AI’s transformative power lies in its

ability to analyze massive amounts

of data, then make predictions and

recommend actions based on the

insights it brings to light from that

data. Using this power, marketers

and brands can plan, produce,

personalise, promote and perform

better - at scale.

The same power may also

produce outcomes that infringe on

rights, damage businesses, and

hurt society. Yet businesses and

individuals have collectively done

very little to establish rules and

guidelines for using AI responsibly.

At this stage, we have more

questions than answers.

How do we use AI to create wealth

without bankrupting consumer

rights? It’s not always clear how

these systems make decisions and

come to conclusions. Without some

transparency, it’s difficult to trust

intelligent systems with important

business and life decisions.

How do we build AI systems that give

us a competitive advantage, without

losing all control over decision-

making processes?

There are no easy answers to any

of these questions. That’s why

it’s so important that many more

people get active and involved

in discussions about how AI

impacts our citizens, countries, and

companies. Because AI is going to

affect everyone.

We created the Marketing AI Institute

to make AI more actionable and

approachable for modern marketers.

But we also feel that, along the

way, the marketing industry must do

much, much more to have honest

conversations about AI ethics. These

conversations must result in real

action.

Marketers, we’re ready to talk. We

hope you are too.

The Marketing AI Institute makes

artificial intelligence more

approachable and actionable for

modern marketers.

STAND AGAINST FEAR & ANXIETYLessons in ethical marketing

- Parry Malm, founder and CEO, Phrasee

One of the first bosses I ever had

in the marketing industry once told

me something that really depressed

me. “There are two reasons people

buy things Parry,” she said. “Those

reasons are guilt and anxiety.”

She believed that if a marketing

campaign could evoke these

negative emotions in a brand’s

audience, sales would invariably

follow. Although this strategy always

felt like a disreputable way to do

business, the sad truth was that it

sometimes worked.

The even sadder truth was that

following a marketing model

predicated on exploiting consumers’

negative emotions and making

people feel fearful, inadequate, and

guilty, made me feel ashamed to be

a marketer.

As my career continued to progress,

I decided to adopt a different

strategic philosophy. A philosophy

built on the belief that we, as

marketers, should focus our efforts

on making the world a better place,

rather than making people feel bad.

I believed that effective marketing

was still possible within a more

positive, respectful context.

As it turned out, I was right. In fact,

we at Phrasee have built a very

successful and rapidly growing

marketing company without

targeting or exploiting consumers’

negative emotions at all.

We’ve always believed that we

have a moral responsibility to not

intentionally exploit people using

negative emotions. Brands and

marketers shouldn’t have to trick

people into buying stuff. Once

a brand starts focusing on guilt,

anxiety or fear to sell its products,

the potential impact on consumers -

particularly those already in fragile

mental states - simply isn’t worth it.

Such tactics turn us from marketers

into exploiters.

If the products you’re selling are

good, and if the marketing you

use to sell those products is

well-built and effective, you’ll make

money, all without harming or

exploiting anyone!

That’s why we’re calling on all

marketers to join forces with us to

build a better marketing industry.

One where we all commit to use the

awesome power of marketing for

good. A marketing industry where the

idea of exploiting negative human

emotions for the purposes of selling

consumers products is a non-starter.

Why now? Because the mighty

marketing industry currently stands on

the cusp of its next great evolutionary

leap. Artificial intelligence, big

data, hyperpersonalisation,

and microtargeting are already

generating profound shifts in the

ways brands interact with consumers.

Thanks to the exponential growth of

these technologies and strategies,

marketing and advertising are

becoming more powerful by the day.

Their potential to manipulate and

exploit negative human emotions

may not be widely understood yet,

but it is definitely very real.

We have all been gifted a unique

opportunity to decide the path our

industry will take as it moves toward

its next iteration, building a better

marketing future for ourselves and

for our audiences. We have a moral

responsibility to make sure that

we put the emotional needs of the

public at large first, in every ad,

every email, and every marketing

campaign we have a hand in from

this day forward.

Why? Because emotions matter!

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MarketDifferently

How does your marketing measure up for mental health?

Constant deadlines, tight budgets

and sustained strategic risk-taking

are all part of the mix of a marketer’s

average day. With an eye on the

bottom line, the desire for a quick

win that will generate a fast profit

can often tip behaviour into

dubious practice.

But today’s consumers place more

value on a brand’s ethical behaviour

than ever before. There is a growing

belief in the market that brands need

to take responsibility for their actions

and move away from using fear

and anxiety to sell more products,

because these negative marketing

messages have a very real impact on

mental health.

Timothy Erblich, CEO of Ethisphere

Institute and a global leader

in defining and advancing the

standards of ethical business

practices, explains that ‘good ethics

is good business’. He points to the

growing body of data in the industry

which shows that the financial return

of ethics (ROE) is very significant.

Unethical marketing is the ongoing

target of legal action and lawsuits.

Research by Forbes reveals that in

the last decade companies have

paid billions of dollars in fines due to

ethical breaches – ethical behaviour

is no longer just a ‘nice to have’.

It could make the difference to a

brand’s future profitability and

long-term viability.

1 Don’t make false claims. It’s a

fairly basic starting point – tell

the truth. Don’t promise customers

benefits that your product simply

can’t deliver or ‘talk up’ the

advantages that your products and

services will confer.

2 Don’t exaggerate the facts or

distort the truth. Tell it like it is.

If your product is not ‘sugar-free’,

‘low-fat’ or ‘natural’, don’t say it

is. Don’t make broad, grandiose

statements unless you have

scientifically proven research and

case studies to back them up. Don’t

make statements that are out of

proportion or promote half-truths.

Advocate the positive benefits of

your products by all means – but

don’t distort your message.

3 Don’t promote messages

that exploit your customers’

emotions. Is your message

precisely tailored to make your

customers feel guilt, anger, anxiety

or other negative emotions? If

so, lose it. You’re preying on their

vulnerabilities, playing with their

mental health and exploiting their

emotions. It’s tasteless, unethical

and bad practice – and eventually

people will call you out on it.

4 Don’t use fear tactics. Is your

message designed to make

your customers fearful? Using high

pressure tactics to make people

experience severe levels of anxiety

and purchase products under duress

is morally questionable. Instead,

promote the positive advantages

of your product and steer clear of

generating negative emotions.

5 Don’t conceal important

information. In a world of

immediate access to information,

don’t be fooled into thinking that

you’re able to evade the truth by

concealing important product

or service information. Embrace

openness in your marketing. Better

a brand be open and earn itself

respect from its consumers than have

its truths spilled out in public forms –

and a bad reputation to follow suit.

6 Don’t bad-mouth your rivals.

Emphasise how your

product /service /offer stands out

in the market, but don’t run down

your rivals’ offering in the process. If

you make false or misleading claims

about another brand you could very

well find yourself in court. At the

very least, it’s unprofessional and

unethical, and people will quickly

see through you.

7 Don’t copy competitors.

Imitation may be the sincerest

form of flattery but imitating others too

closely – or passing their messages off

as your own – will quickly mark you out

as a fraud.

8 Don’t be racist, sexist, ageist

or fall foul of any other ‘ist’.

Don’t discriminate. Ensure that your

message doesn’t promote people

of a certain nationality, race, sex,

age or religion as being better than

others. Remember, social values

are constantly changing. Reputable

brands don’t discriminate and don’t

exploit any one group of people.

9 Don’t exploit children.

Exploiting childish naivety – of

potential customers who can’t evaluate

your marketing messages objectively

– is one of the most frowned upon

unethical marketing practices.

Don’t do it.

10 Don’t spam your customers.

Don’t bombard your

customers with unsolicited emails,

newsletters or direct messages,

urging them to buy your products.

Nobody likes a spammer and it’s

likely to have the reverse effect to

what you intended.

- Bernadette Fallon,

Lifestyle and technology writer

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LEARN FROM THE KEY PLAYERSAI, ethics and mental health

Artificial intelligence is an extremely powerful

technology. And like all powerful technologies, it has

its fair share of moral and ethical implications to deal

with. More than its fair share, in fact.

From 1927’s Metropolis to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws

of Robotics, thinkers, dreamers, and intellectuals alike

have debated the implications AI technology could

SPOTLIGHT

SESSIONS

represent for its creators, humankind, and the world

as a whole.

So, as AI ethics moves to the forefront of the modern

technological conversation, what do today’s tech

thought-leaders think about what AI’s exponential

growth and widespread implementation means for

the future of humanity? Let’s take a look…

The Alan Turing Institute

The UK’s national institute for data

science and AI has taken a proactive

approach to protecting individuals

and society at large from abuse

at the hands of those who would

use data and AI technologies for

personal gain at the cost of others.

It has committed to “using data

science and AI technologies for

everyone’s benefit”.

Stephen Hawking

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist

Stephen Hawking had more than

one memorable quote regarding the

implications of AI and what it will

mean for humanity when machine

intelligence surpasses that of our

own race. “When it eventually does

occur, it’s likely to be either the best

or worst thing ever to happen to

humanity, so there’s huge value in

getting it right.”

The Leverhulme Centre for the

Future of Intelligence at Cambridge

The Leverhulme Centre for the

Future of Intelligence at Cambridge

brings together researchers from

computer science, philosophy, social

sciences, law and politics to explore

the development, opportunities and

challenges of AI. With a pragmatic

view on the progression of AI

technology, its goal is simply “to

bring together the best of human

intelligence so that we can make the

most of machine intelligence.”

Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky

American AI researcher Eliezer

Shlomo Yudkowsky, best known for

popularizing the concept of “friendly

AI”- AI which has an entirely positive

impact on humanity - has many

well-thought-out theories on where

AI technology should be directed

and how it should be constrained.

Nick Bostrom

As the founding director of the Future

of Humanity Institute at Oxford

University researching the impact

of future technologies, Swedish

philosopher Nick Bostrom has some

strong opinions on the nature of

intelligence. He believes that AI

represents a massive leap into the

unknown and that this leap must be

made only with extreme caution.

Joanna Bryson

Associate Professor in the

Department of Computing at Bath

University, Joanna Bryson specialises

in AI, ethics and collaborative

cognitions. She’s a member of the All

Party Parliamentary Group on AI and

a highly-regarded thought leader

in the AI field. In her essay “Robots

should be slaves”, Bryson focuses

on where AI should fit in society and

what its relationship with humans

should be.

- Stu Elmes,

Marketing technology writer

There’s a global shift in the minds of marketers to suit the growing conscience of consumers. Two leading players in the space discuss how these ideas are manifesting in the modern-day marketing environment.

Chris Walts, Social Strategy Director at Ogilvy UK

About Chris: Chris Walts has carved

out a comfortable niche for himself

as Social Strategy Director at Ogilvy

UK. Chris keeps his finger on the

pulse of new and emerging trends,

technologies and behaviours,

translating this knowledge into

tangible solutions for Ogilvy’s clients.

Q: How is the way brands represent

themselves on social media evolving

right now?

A: Consumers are prioritising where

they give their attention, which

in turn has led to a scepticism of

being sold to. To cut through the

tremendous amount of the noise and

‘fakenews’, brands are learning that

honesty, transparency, and utility

are key. Brands that understand

how to provide value – through

entertainment, utility, or inspiration –

are the ones consumers remember.

Q: Where is the relationship between

brands and social media platforms

headed in the years to come?

A: In an effort to provide greater

value to consumers, brands were

working hard to create frictionless,

personalised experiences.

Unfortunately, the correct rules and

regulations weren’t put in place,

and people’s personal data started

getting abused. Moving forward,

I think additional controls will be

added to let individuals decide

how and when they want their data

to be shared to create frictionless

personalisation.

Amy Williams, Social Entrepreneurand Good-Loop Founder

About Amy: The relationship

between internet users, content

publishers, and the brands that keep

publishers’ lights on is an awkward

and tenuous one. Enter Amy

Williams, Founder of Good-Loop – a

programmatic digital advertising

platform that “is respectful to users,

positive for brands and profitable for

publishers”.

Q: How does connecting brands’

digital advertising campaigns to

charitable donations benefit brands?

A: There are a couple of ways that

brands benefit from connecting

their marketing to good causes –

such as delivering a more positive

connection with consumers and a

much higher rate of engagement

with your content. But perhaps most

importantly, linking your brand with

bigger, more meaningful social

causes fundamentally helps you

to sell more stuff. Neilson found

that 66% of consumers are willing

to pay more for socially conscious

brands and this number moves to

around 90% when you look at only

millennials and Gen Z.

Q: What do brands and advertisers

need to do differently to be more

“respectful of users”?

A: Brands need to create a more

respectful and more positive

advertising experience for their

customers. So many ads online pop

up or auto-play and force us to watch

them. But if customers can choose

when to watch their ads and can get

something in return – you’re offering

a fairer value exchange to people.

Those people are going to feel more

positive about their online experience

and in turn, about your brand.

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PEOPLEHAVE TO COME FIRST

““

1716

WORD UP FROM SENIOR MARKETERSChanging the conversation

“At Hilton, all team members are personally responsible

for acting with integrity in order to enhance Hilton’s

reputation, client experience, and a healthy work

environment. We have built a culture to maintain the

highest ethical standards in the hospitality business,

ensuring our marketing activities are truthful and

accurate, with our audience receiving a positive and

transparent experience at every touch point.”

Marc LantrokSenior Manager CRM Client Servicesat Hilton Worldwide

“One of our core values at Virgin is to do business for

good. We pride ourselves on putting our customers first,

focusing on positive messaging - fear-based tactics are

not only unethical, but they’re also a lazy approach to

marketing. We wouldn’t associate ourselves with any

company or vendor that takes advantage of vulnerable

people by using fear tactics that promote anxiety. It’s just

not the Virgin Way.”

Saul LopesCustomer Lifecycle Leadat Virgin Holidays

“A core element that has enabled the Social Chain Group’s

success has been our ability to build one of the biggest

networks of social media communities in the world. To

grow hundreds of millions of followers, people have to

come first and be at the heart of everything we do. This

flows through into all key decisions across the business,

from what brands to work with, to what topics to lend our

voice to and what charities we support. If it doesn’t add

value to the audience or enhance their life in some way,

then it is an immediate red flag for us that we are veering

away from everything we stand for as a business.”

Alex AyinGroup Transformation Director at Social Chain Group

“Until recently, we were living in a marketing environment

where a brand had to show their potential customers

how great their products were against competitors’. But

this trend is slowly changing; brands are trying to raise

awareness about ethical matters, from environmental

ones like the massive “anti-plastic campaign”, to social or

political change like the recent Nike advertising campaign.

Brands are starting to use marketing with the purpose

of sharing their values with an audience, becoming

something much bigger than promoting a product or a

service, if not the emotional value behind them.“

Sara Cartelle BucetaAccount Director at Tomorrow | TTH

“I strongly support the work Phrasee is doing on Emotions

Matter. I believe that marketers should value and respect

their customers enough to market to them as they would

like to be marketed to. I think that great marketing comes

from putting brands /products /services into the context of

people’s lives. If you ignore that, you can end up with one

dimensional messaging, often based on fear or anxiety.

This kind of negative messaging can give marketers a

bad name and alienate customers. And customers are

people, just like us. That’s why Emotions Matter.”

Matt ButtonHead of CRM and Social at Gumtree.com

1918

TECHNOLOGY’S ROLE IN MENTAL HEALTHIn conversation with Dr Fjola Helgadottir,

PhD R.Psych

health. It can lead to feelings of

isolation and depression, as well

as negatively impacting our social

skills, concentration levels, attention

spans and sleep patterns; there’s

an emotional risk. From a pragmatic

standpoint, brands in the corporate

marketing technology space bear a

moral and social responsibility not to

put pressure on their customers, using

the technology at their disposal.

Dr Helgadottir agrees. “If technology

is only designed for the purpose of

capturing our attention, that is not

necessarily going to be good for us.

Algorithms are only as good as their

intended purpose. If we are stuck to

our phones all the time, that is not

promoting good mental health – we

need technology to help us, not to

create negative situations.”

Brands may not be using technology

in negative ways intentionally. But

using high pressure tactics to make

people experience severe levels

of anxiety and purchase products

under duress is a very disingenuous

way of using technology.

When it comes to using technology for

good, Dr Helgadottir is most excited

about the potential of using new

technology to help people engage

with evidence-based therapy.

“Therapy is hard,” she says. “That’s

true regardless of how it is being

delivered, whether by a human or

machine. But because people today

spend so much time connected, we

can use this time to make positive

change and real connections.”

And the future looks interesting.

Following Matt Hancock’s

appointment as Secretary of

State for Health and Social Care

earlier this summer, the Mental

Health Foundation has called on

him to embrace the role digital

technologies can play in preventing

and treating mental health problems

and their potential to benefit more

people than can be reached by

current service models alone. It

seems clear that the drive to use

technology to positively impact

mental health is set to continue.

So, how is this affecting our mental

health, and what role should

technology play in a world that is

becoming increasingly defined by it?

On the other side of the coin,

technology has made vast

improvements to our everyday life

and, more specifically, technology

is improving mental health care in

many ways. The Office of National

Statistics revealed that 90% of all

adults in the UK now use the internet,

and according to the Mental Health

Foundation, “with this growth of

the internet, online spaces and

smartphone apps, healthcare services

are beginning to use these developing

technologies to help monitor health

and prevent and treat any problems”.

Dr Helgadottir, AI-Therapy founder,

has established Overcome Social

Anxiety (OSA), a fully-automated

treatment programme for social

anxiety, which has already treated

people from over 30 countries.

It’s a strong example of how new

technology can impact our mental

health in a very positive way. When

it comes to mental health, she is

adamant that technology should be

used to reach people who are not

currently being helped.

“There is a lot of research behind the

decision-making that helps people

with mental health problems and

technology can play a big role in

disseminating these evidence-based

practices,” she confirms. “Technology

can provide a set of tools that has

the potential to reach and benefit

millions of people.”

“Just this year, we published

a randomised control trial in

collaboration with the University of

British Columbia, which showed,

using the most robust scientific

method, that the program is highly

effective. In fact, it was just as

effective, and in some circumstances

even more effective, than human-

delivered treatment programs.”

Technology at its worst, as

certain experts like to remind us,

can adversely affect our mental

Technology in the 21st century has revolutionised our lives with its game-changing tools and resources. It’s changed the way we interact and communicate, how we pay our bills and eat our dinners. From hardware to software, the tiny computers we carry in our pockets and the innovations that make them run, technology in the form of digital media permeates every part of our lives.

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AI ETHICS POLICY

Why everyone should have one...

We’re surprised AI ethics policies

aren’t more commonplace and

that we appear to be one of the

few companies not only promoting

what we believe in, but also putting

our head above the parapet about

it. If we’re going to get the wider

marketing community to realise

the commercial benefits of AI, we

also need to put the fundamentals

in place and collectively drive an

ethical marketing agenda.

This starts with committing to paper

what we will and won’t do for the

greater good.

We won’t: use data to target

vulnerable populations, promote the

use of negative emotions to exploit

people or work with customers

whose values don’t align with ours.

We will: take action to avoid

prejudice and bias, be open about

what our AI does and stick to our

values, pledging not to change our

ethics policy, though we may add to

it when required. We think of it like

our constitution.

“Marketers are getting a bad rap

recently and are a victim of their own

actions because for years they have

been encouraged to use spurious

tactics to get people to buy more

stuff,” explains Parry Malm, Phrasee

founder and CEO.

Writing in The Entrepreneur, digital

marketer Aaron Haynes says that

only ethical marketing will stand the

test of time and is critical for

business success.

“Any business perceived to lack

ethics is seen as lacking a moral

compass, having doubtful product

quality and holding no corporate

community concern. When a lack of

ethics becomes public knowledge,

businesses lose credibility,” he

explains.

And the call for high ethical

standards is only going to get

louder. A recent survey carried out

by financial protection providers

Aflac found that 92% of millennial

consumers are more likely to buy

products from ethical companies.

And 82% of those consumers believe

ethical brands outperform similar

companies that lack a commitment

to ethical principles.

“I think it’s high time that marketers

took responsibility for their actions

and realise there is more to what

we do than just selling a few more

widgets,” says Parry. “We actually

bear a social responsibility, and if

marketers want to create enduring

relationships with customers, they

need to stop treating people like

bottomless pits of surplus to

extract. They need to move away

from using fear and anxiety to sell

more products and take a more

positive approach.”

“In a high-tech world, having a strong

ethical approach is more important

than ever”, says Phrasee co-founder

and COO, Victoria Peppiatt.

“I think it’s so important to educate

consumers about how companies

are using AI. As an AI marketing tech

company, we have the responsibility

of using AI transparently, so that

consumers understand why and how

we’re using the technology to better

experiences, rather than supporting

negative engagement. AI ethics

policies are the future for all tech

companies, which is why I’m so proud

that Phrasee is leading the way with

our open approach to AI ethics.”

So it seems we’re all on the same

page here. And at Phrasee, we’re

keen to lead the charge, kicking if off

with our ethics policy, pledging not

to use technology to explicitly exploit

vulnerable populations.

We believe that marketing can

change the world. And we’re calling

on the industry to consider the effect

its work has on the world at large.

It’s time to start the debate.

Will you join us?

AI companies have a social responsibility to consumers to be open about what exactly they are doing with this technology - and how. Phrasee is proud to be one of the first companies in the world working in AI for marketing to do so. We’re taking the lead and codifying what we believe to be an ethical way to run an AI business. We’ve drawn up an ethics policy that is practical, specific and explicit.

Will you join us?www.phrasee.co/emotions-matter

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AI ETHICS POLICY

...and here’s ours

Artificial Intelligence sometimes gets a bad rap… because it can be used for good… but it can also be used for evil.

We at Phrasee believe that AI should be used for good. As one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world, we believe it’s our responsibility to put our money where our mouth is.

No one has done what we’re doing at Phrasee before, so there are no obvious standards for us to follow. And as widespread use of AI is such a new thing, there aren’t many examples for us to learn from. So, we’re just going to do what we feel is right – and be open and transparent about it.

Our goal isn’t to build The Terminator, or “General AI”. Our goal is to give every marketing team in the world the chance to have a machine-powered copywriter that gets results.

Following are the ethics that we’ve learned since founding Phrasee in 2015. Have we always been perfect? Nope, we are but humans! So that’s why we’re putting this policy in place. As our business expands, we need to ensure that our ethical beliefs remain steadfast.

We’ve not made any wide-reaching, ambiguous statements like “don’t be evil”. We believe that our ethics policy needs to be practical, specific and explicit. Therefore, we’ve decided to outline these policies, with examples where possible.

Things we won’t do

We won’t use data to target vulnerable populations. It’s possible, for example, that a machine learning

algorithm could identify bi-polar people about to enter

a mania phase… and then suggest you target them with

extravagant product offers. Or, say someone has recently

gone through a breakup, or worse, a bereavement, and

people used AI to exploit their emotional state. We do not

believe using AI to these ends is ethical. We believe that

even though a machine’s prediction may be right, that

doesn’t mean we should use it to exploit people. We will

NEVER use data like this.

We won’t promote the use of negative emotions to exploit people. Some people and companies suggest selecting messages

that explicitly focus on “fear, guilt and anxiety.” We

believe that people shouldn’t be treated like this. We, as

marketers, shouldn’t make people feel fearful, guilty and

anxious; instead, we should focus on the positive aspects

of our brands. We will NEVER encourage our customers to

use negative emotions to target their consumers.

We will not work with customers whose values don’t align with ours. In the past we have actively turned down working with

companies that we believe are harmful to society or have

unscrupulous business models. All potential customers go

through a review process to make sure their ethics align

with ours. We will not work with: gun & weapon retailers,

political parties or any company that promotes hate

speech or the marginalisation of segments of society. The

individuals who work for these types of organisations are

probably nice people, and we’d love to work with you

when you switch industries. But for now, it’s not for us.

Things we will do

Take action to avoid prejudice and bias. First off, we ensure our team itself is diverse. Phrasee is

gender balanced, has staff members from many countries

around the world, many socio-economic profiles, ages,

sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds and political

beliefs. Secondly, we actively develop methods to identify

and remove prejudice from our data sets. This ensures our

models are generalised, and any small amount of biased

data is washed out during training.

Be open about what our AI does. We use AI to do two very specific tasks: to generate

human-sounding, brand-compliant marketing copy, and

to predict the performance of that copy in the wild. We

do not use AI for other purposes, and if/when we do, we

will be open about it. Our customers deserve to know

what we do, and that we aren’t hiding any secret, evil

development schemes.

We will not change this policy. We will monitor it and add to it when required. We view this ethics policy like the US Constitution. So, the

core text will not change. However, ethics are not static,

and adapt over time (just remember that gay marriage

wasn’t legal in most of the world 15 years ago!). The

world around us changes. When our policy needs to be

amended, we will transparently add amendments at

the end of the document, dated and with reasons. This

way you can always see where we stand, and what

we stand for.

EMOTIONS MATTER......more than you think.

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