AI has become an everyday tool for communicators, but many of the audiences they're trying to reach remain deeply skeptical of how it's being used.

Why it matters: Communicators risk getting stuck in a pro-AI bubble, where the ubiquity of the technology among colleagues and executives makes it easy to overlook the skepticism — and sometimes outright hostility — it generates.

• Half of U.S. consumers prefer to give their business to brands that don't use generative AI in consumer-facing messages, advertising and content, according to a Gartner survey from earlier this year.
• Younger consumers were particularly skeptical: 57% of Gen Z and millennials said generative AI has made content quality worse.
• In contrast, AI has become deeply embedded in comms. Earlier this year, Muck Rack found 80% of PR professionals say they already use generative AI in their workflow.

Zoom in: Comms teams have to know the audience. That includes creators, whose livelihoods depend on understanding what their audiences will tolerate, celebrate or reject.

• YouTuber Hank Green faced backlash after viewers of a July 29 video zeroed in on language they associated with ChatGPT and accused him of using AI to write his script.
• Green denied the allegations but acknowledged that he'd become overly reliant on the technology for research and later shared a personal AI policy restricting how he'll use it going forward.
• OpenAI's first influencer brand trip — a luxury "Summer Club" retreat in New York's Hudson Valley — backfired as participating creators were criticized for promoting the company amid broader concerns about AI's environmental impact, job displacement and corporate power.

The big picture: The episodes highlight just how unsettled the boundaries around acceptable AI use remain.

• "Where do you draw the line of what's immoral and what is moral?" content creator and marketing strategist Sam Ogborn says. "It's a very subjective question that I believe every person has to answer for themselves."
• Communicators must help companies read the room. "Don't become so fascinated with the technology that you forget your audience is human," Reddit chief communications officer Adam Collins said.
• "The best way for communicators to avoid an AI bubble is the same way communicators have always avoided any information bubbles: Listen to people outside of it," he said.

AI companies can avoid that whiplash by figuring out where an audience's line is before crossing it.

• "We don't want to rage bait people for no reason," says Higgsfield founding growth lead Alisher Shariyazdanov.
• He explained the AI video company proactively addresses concerns. For example, a 10-person team studies the audiences of creators Higgsfield partners with and develops a different brief for each community of filmmakers, marketers and content creators.
• The company also built an internal dashboard that tracks social trends to gauge the backlash risk of potential campaigns.

Zoom out: It's not just AI. There's a broadening influencer fatigue. (See the viral "no influencers" sign in Nantucket.)

• Consumers know they're addicted to their phones and are trying to solve for that, fueling interest in tech like Brick, which locks users out of their social apps.
• The economic backdrop and wealth gap have also left audiences irritated rather than inspired by displays of wealth, including flashy brand trips.

Between the lines: Anti-AI sentiment is part of broader anxiety about jobs, creative work, the environment and the power of technology companies.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday called for a pause on the development of more advanced AI systems, arguing that companies are moving forward without adequately accounting for their effects on workers and society.
• Silicon Valley's futurist predictions have fallen flat before, argue anti-AI activists.
• Tech companies, most notably Meta, spent billions trying to build a metaverse where users could shop, go to concerts and attend meetings. And of course, who can forget NFTs?

Reality check: AI isn't like any of those things. Hundreds of millions of people already use AI products, and the technology is increasingly embedded across the economy.

• "It's very easy to say, 'I'm anti-AI,' without recognizing that AI is embedded now in every part of our lives," said Ogborn.
• But widespread adoption doesn't mean widespread acceptance.
• Social media can push people to further extremes. "The more anti-AI someone becomes, the more they're going to continue to see that content," she noted.

The bottom line: The biggest risk can come from trying to appease everyone. Pick a side and be transparent with your audience, says Ogborn. "The worst is when people try to play both sides, whether it's companies or creators."

Madison Mills contributed reporting.

Anthropic's new models will add machine-readable "watermarks" to Claude-generated text and files to comply with new European Union transparency regulations.

Why it matters: Comms teams using Claude to simply clean up, translate or format human-drafted press releases could stamp those documents with an AI signature.

How it works: For models launched in the EU after Aug. 2, Anthropic is marking content in two ways "wherever Claude is offered, worldwide."

• Text watermarks: Claude embeds patterns into the generated text that Anthropic claims are "imperceptible."
• File metadata: Generated media files carry digital signatures confirming the asset was processed by Claude.

Yes, but: Anthropic highlighted two major limitations to its detection tech.

• AI-assisted can appear AI-generated: Content may trigger a detected mark even if Claude was used solely to proofread, format or translate human-written copy.
• Detection drop-off: If text is heavily rewritten, mixed with other copy or too short, then the watermarks might not be detectable.

Zoom out: Anthropic explained its changes are designed to meet Article 50 of the EU AI Act, which mandates AI disclosures for generated or manipulated content.

• OpenAI similarly outlined its compliance approach, though its current watermarking efforts primarily focus on images and audio rather than text.
• The moves mark a regulatory-driven turn in the ongoing effort to help audiences identify AI-generated text, audio and visual content.
• Digital platforms have recently accelerated their own AI identification measures: LinkedIn is testing a "seems like AI slop" button, Substack embedded Pangram's AI detection suite, and Snap stopped promoting AI-generated video in its main feed.

What's next: AI providers have until Dec. 2 to bring legacy models into compliance with EU rules, meaning we'll get a clearer picture in the coming months of how the industry's biggest players plan to mark AI-generated content.

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Jessica Kleiman took a "very jagged" path from aspiring magazine writer to communications leader, with stops across media, entertainment and technology before making the jump to homebuilding.

The latest: Today, Kleiman is senior vice president of communications at Lennar, one of the nation's largest homebuilders.

The path here: Kleiman originally planned to become a writer, interning and freelancing for national magazines while in college.

• She joined a small New York PR agency representing magazines, figuring the connections might eventually help her move into editorial.
• Instead, "I ended up loving the PR side and the rest is history," she said.
• Kleiman went on to spend much of her communications career in media, entertainment and technology, including four years as Peloton's first head of communications, before making "a pretty big pivot" into homebuilding.

Tough lesson: Even if you love what you do, "at the end of the day, it's just a job."

• After leaving Peloton, "I felt like I lost an appendage because it was such a big part of my life both personally and professionally," she said. "I had to sort of 'deprogram' myself, and that took a while."

Trendspotting: The line between communications and HR is blurring as comms teams take on more responsibility for how companies engage employees and attract talent.

• Lennar's latest employer brand campaign was a collaboration between comms, talent acquisition and early careers, with Kleiman's team spearheading the effort and owning social execution.
• "Ten years ago that kind of campaign would have sat entirely with HR or talent acquisition," she said. "Now comms is a lead partner, because the story of why people want to work somewhere has become as important as the story of what the company builds or sells."

Currently consuming: Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography ("Better late than never!")

• Plus, a rewatch of "Arrested Development;" the "SmartLess" podcast; and Suzy Welch's "Becoming You."

Morning ritual: Nespresso with the New York Times and New York Post, followed by a few Duolingo Spanish lessons while walking her dog.

• Fun fact: She's currently on a 589-day streak.

Best advice: Know your non-negotiables.

• Kleiman encourages younger professionals to write down what they need from a job to be happy.
• "You may not get every one in every role, but if you're in a job that doesn't check any of your boxes, then you know you're in the wrong place."

Have a colleague, mentor or comms hero you want to see in this series? Let me know.

🐘 Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as White House press secretary. (Axios)

• She defended the White House through multiple controversies and the biggest stories of the president's second term so far, including the Signalgate scandal, the release of the Epstein files and the Iran war.

📺 In Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, progressive insurgent Francesca Hong lost by about 3,000 votes, with 98% of the votes counted, after leading polls ahead of the race by double digits. (Axios)

• Hong faced backlash over years-old social media posts, like one calling to "cancel Thanksgiving." While she later backtracked on those statements, her meandering responses didn't shake the scrutiny.
• Without major endorsements from progressive heavyweights in the chaotic primary, the comments proved distracting and costly.

🥊 California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance chair and CEO David Ellison expanded their fight to the op-ed pages amid their legal standoff.

• Ellison's New York Times op-ed last week argued efforts to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal are political and driven by fear over his potential stewardship of CNN.
• Bonta chose Hollywood trade Deadline for his response, defending the 12-state lawsuit against the takeover as a straightforward antitrust case.

🤖 The New York Post launched Hamilton, a Google Cloud-powered AI news assistant that uses the paper's journalism to give readers conversational search and personalized news experiences. (Axios)

• Simon's thought bubble: Imagine all the work it takes to get your CEO quoted in a story — only for the publisher's own AI bot to summarize it without the quote! Maddening.

This earnings season I've been playing around with Google Finance's Gemini integration, which allows users to get breakdowns and analyses based on massive troves of financial data, including earnings reports and call transcripts.

• I asked Gemini to explain some of the weedier aspects of PayPal's business — the stuff that took me a while to wrap my head around when I first joined— and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it explained things!

The big picture: As communicators are urged to become multidisciplinary operators, versed in everything from government relations to HR policies, AI-powered crash courses can help fill in knowledge gaps.

A question to you, communicators: Have you used AI to get up to speed on professional topics you felt you didn't have a strong enough grasp of? Share your experiences!