Who's Responsible When AI Creates Something Harmful?

Two marketers I know personally just had a very public falling out over a single AI-generated image.

It spiraled into threats, name-calling, and a comments section that got ugly fast. And buried underneath all that noise are three lessons every creator using AI needs to hear.

I broke this down in a recent episode of my podcast, Marketing Your Business, in a lot more detail.

What actually happened?

Here's the short version. A marketer ran an ad for his AI copywriting tool. The ad included an AI-generated image of a woman in a red bikini.

The problem?

That image looked almost identical to another well-known marketer.

People started messaging her asking if it was her. She posted a video calling him out publicly. He responded saying it was a coincidence and refused to apologize.

From there, it unraveled.

The comments turned into a bit of an online war zone with people taking sides. People made comparisons to criminals, others sent threats, and ugly things were said about both parties. It got out of hand. Fast.

Listen... I know both of these people. I respect both of them. What I am here to do is pull out the lessons. Because there are real ones here for anyone building a business with AI.

Here are the three things I want you to take away.

Lesson 1: Does it matter that "AI did it"?

No. Not even a little.

If you use AI to create content for your business, you are responsible for what it produces. Full stop.

Think about it this way. AI is like an employee. If someone on your team created an ad with an image that looked like a specific person, you wouldn't shrug and say, "Well, that was them, not me." You'd own it. Because it went out under your name.

The same applies to AI.

"It was AI" is just a new version of "the dog ate my homework." Your audience doesn't care whether you typed every word yourself or whether a tool generated it. They see your name, your brand, your ad. That makes it yours.

And here's the thing... your audience is paying attention. And with people already having some skepticism about AI-generated material, publishing something carelessly pours fuel on that fire.

This is especially true if you're a digital creator building a membership or course.

Your members trust you. They signed up because of your expertise, your perspective, your judgment. Every piece of content you publish... whether you wrote it yourself or AI helped... either reinforces that trust or chips away at it.

Lesson 2: Are you actually reviewing what AI creates?

This is where most creators are dropping the ball.

AI is fast. It's impressive. It can generate copy, images, course outlines, social posts, and email sequences in minutes. But it doesn't have common sense. It doesn't understand context the way you do. It can't tell if an image it generated looks uncomfortably similar to a real person. It won't flag that a piece of copy could be read in a way you never intended.

That's your job.

Before publishing any AI-generated image, ask yourself: "Does this look like a real person? Could someone think this is someone specific? Is this something I'd want associated with my brand?"

Before publishing AI-generated copy, ask: "Is this accurate? Could it be misread? Does it actually align with my values and how I want to show up?"

Bottom line... If you're using ChatGPT or similar tools for your membership, you're probably saving hours every week. That's great. But those saved hours only pay off if the output is something you'd genuinely be proud to put your name on.

Speed without review is a liability.

This is where building content inside a platform like Membership.io actually helps. When you're creating course modules, community posts, or resources inside your Hub, you have a natural review moment before anything goes live to your members. Use it. Don't just generate and publish. Generate, review, then publish.

Lesson 3: When things go wrong, do you go public or go direct?

This is the lesson that has nothing to do with AI...

The person who felt wronged had every right to be upset. Someone's ad featured an AI image that looked like her. People were asking if she'd posed for it. That's genuinely uncomfortable.

But her first move was posting a public video calling the other person out. They had dozens of mutual friends and colleagues. She could have picked up the phone, sent a DM, or asked a mutual connection to facilitate a conversation. The other person even said in his response that he would have taken the ad down if she'd asked.

Going public first skips the chance to resolve things privately. And once something is public, it takes on a life of its own. People pile on. The nuance disappears. And suddenly a situation that could have been a 10-minute conversation becomes a weeks-long internet spectacle.

I used a simple analogy on the podcast: imagine you're at a restaurant and your food arrives wrong. You talk to the server first. You don't stand up and announce to the dining room that the kitchen messed up. 99 times out of 100, they fix it.

Same principle applies in business.

The 3-question checklist every creator needs

I shared this on the podcast and I want you to pin it to your desk, tape it to your monitor, save it on your phone. Before you hit publish on any AI-generated content, ask yourself:

1. Am I proud of this? If you wouldn't put your name on it confidently, it's not ready.
2. Could this be misread or cause harm? Think about how someone outside your bubble might interpret it. What would a stranger think?
3. Would I be comfortable if this went viral? Not for the right reasons... but for the wrong ones. Because sometimes, things go viral for exactly the wrong reasons.

If any of those questions give you pause, stop. Revise. Get a second opinion. The few minutes it takes to review could save you weeks of damage control.

AI is incredibly powerful. It's going to keep getting more powerful. But the responsibility for how we use it... that stays with us. It always will.

The creators who thrive long-term won't be the ones who generate the most content the fastest. They'll be the ones who generate great content responsibly. And that starts with a simple review before you hit publish.