Two of the most well known, most
respected marketers and copywriters in
our industry just had a
very public falling out.
And it all started with a
single AI generated image.
Now I know both of these people
personally and I respect both of them.
And I'm not here to pick sides, but what
happened between them raised a question
that I think every single one
of us using AI needs to answer.
If AI creates something on your behalf
that causes harm, who's responsible?
That's what we're going to be digging
first is Frank Kern, who's been in the
internet marketing game for decades.
The second is Alex Katoni, who runs Copy
Posse and has built a huge
brand teaching copywriting.
Now both are elite level marketers.
Both are people that I know personally.
Alex is a member of my
highest level mastermind, Impact.
So I know her.
She's a dear friend.
Frank is someone that
I've known for over 20 years.
I've purchased tens of thousands of
dollars of his trainings.
Now here's the situation.
Frank has an AI copywriting
tool and he ran an ad for it.
The ad included an AI generated image of
a woman in a red
string bikini on a beach.
The problem is that image looked almost
identical to Alex Katoni and people were
DMing Alex saying, is that you?
Now Alex's response to all this, she did
a little digging and ultimately she was
furious and she posted a
video calling Frank out publicly.
She was upset and rightfully so.
Even seeing what looks like your face in
a bikini being used to promote a product
in the copywriting
space, which is her market.
That's not okay.
Now Frank's response is he posted a video
showing the prompt that he used showing
that the prompt didn't mention Alex by
name showing multiple regenerations of
the image that all
look slightly different.
He said it was a coincidence and he also
said that he was not apologizing because
he didn't believe he did anything wrong.
Now the fallout from this has really been
the people in the comments.
I mean people were
comparing Frank to Jeffrey Epstein.
Others made threats
against his wife and daughters.
It got ugly fast and not only that, but
the opposite was true.
People were also saying some really ugly
things about Alex in the
comments of Frank's video.
Now here's my belief on this whole thing.
I believe Frank didn't do it on purpose.
I do think it was a coincidence, but I
also believe that Alex had every right to
be upset and I think the real
conversation here is much
bigger than this ongoing feud.
This isn't really about Frank or Alex.
This is about you and me and every person
using AI in their business right now
because there are three big lessons here
that I think we all need
to take time to think about.
Reason number one, you are responsible
for what AI creates on your behalf.
AI is like an employee.
If you hire someone and they do something
wrong while working for you, you can't
just say, "Hey, that was them, not me."
You're the boss.
You signed off on it.
You published it.
Same thing with AI.
Think of it like a contractor who is
building your house.
If the contractor installs faulty wiring
and the house catches fire, you can't
tell the insurance company, "Well, I
didn't install the wiring.
You were the one that
hired the contractor.
You approved the work.
You're responsible for the output."
Frank's position in this video was
essentially, "I'm not apologizing because
I didn't do anything wrong."
Look, I get it.
He didn't type Alex's
name into the prompt.
He didn't upload her photo,
but he did publish the image.
He put it out into the world as an ad for
his product, and that's where the
responsibility kicks in.
See, when you use AI to create content,
images, copy, anything, the moment you
hit publish, it's yours.
You own it.
It was AI is not a defense.
It's the new like, "The
dog ate my homework," right?
Now, here's what's interesting.
A study from the Nuremberg Institute for
Market Decisions found that when
consumers find out content was made by
AI, their trust in the ad and the company
behind it goes down.
Not only are you responsible, but your
audience is already more skeptical of AI
content to begin with, and you can't
afford to be careless.
Does this make sense?
You and I need to own what we put out
there, regardless of the
tool that we use to make it.
Is that right?
Okay.
Lesson number two,
review before you
publish every single time.
The real failure here wasn't that AI
generated an image
that looked like someone.
AI does that.
The real failure was that nobody caught
it before it went live.
when you look at the actual prompt that
Frank used, it asked for a beautiful,
super sexy Caucasian woman with flowing
brown hair and bright blue
eyes in a red string bikini.
Now, regardless of whether you think that
kind of a prompt was appropriate or not,
the problem is that if you are prompting
AI, you are responsible for
what AI ultimately creates.
That is a choice that is made.
The choice of what to use in the prompt
and the choice of whether
you're going to use the output.
I want you to think of
it like proofreading.
Before you send an important email to a
client, you read it twice.
You check for typos.
You check for tone.
You make sure nothing in
there could be misread.
See, AI output deserves the same level of
review, maybe even more because AI
doesn't have the common
sense that you and I have.
It doesn't know that the image it
generated looks like a
real person in your industry.
Before publishing any AI generated image,
I want you to ask the question, does this
look like a real person?
Could someone think of
this as someone specific?
Before publishing any AI generated copy,
you got to ask
yourself, is this accurate?
Could it be misread?
Does it align with my values?
The simple gut check, would I be
comfortable if this went
viral for the wrong reasons?
That right there will tell you whether AI
is appropriate to be published.
Now, there were all kinds of comments,
but one that stood out
to me was Morgan Knox.
I'm paraphrasing here, but she basically
said, "If you're a designer and you
create a logo and it goes public and
people start pointing out that there's
something inappropriate in
it, did you do a good job?
Your intentions don't
matter as much as the impact.
When the public sees it and has a
reaction, that's what counts."
And there's research that ties this in.
Getty Images surveyed over 30,000 adults
across 25 countries and found that nearly
90% of consumers want to know whether an
image was created using AI.
See, people are paying
attention to this stuff.
They care about it.
So, you and I need to care about it too.
You following me on this?
The review step is where most people are
dropping the ball with AI right now and
we've got to clean it up.
Okay, lesson number three.
When conflict happens, go direct first.
In hindsight, I think the better move
would have been for Alex to reach out to
Frank directly before posting publicly.
And I say that with full respect for Alex
and full understanding
of why she was upset.
She had every right to
feel the way that she felt.
Frank and Alex both have dozens of mutual
friends and any one of those people could
have picked up the phone.
And Frank even said in his video that he
would have taken the post down
immediately, no questions asked if
someone had just told him.
And by the way, he did take it down the
moment he found out.
But once something goes public, you and I
lose control of the narrative.
The comments section became a war zone.
People were comparing
Frank to Jeffrey Epstein.
People were threatening his family.
And the opposite was also true.
People were saying super
ugly things about Alex as well.
And that's way beyond the original issue.
And once that genie gets out of the
bottle, you can't pull it back.
See, whether it's a business partner, a
competitor, a team member, or a fellow
creator, when there's conflict, the first
move should always be
a private conversation.
Give the other person a chance to make it
right before you take it public.
Now I want to highlight something that
Alex said in her follow up
video to Frank's response.
And that I think was actually really
mature and really important.
She said that she believes Frank when he
said it wasn't intentional.
And that she pivoted to the real
conversation, which is where is the line
with using AI and marketing?
And what precedent does this set?
Where does accountability land?
Those are the right questions.
She was questioning more about Frank's
intention of using a woman in a red
string bikini to sell
an AI copywriting tool.
And she's trying to raise a bigger
conversation that I
think is important as well.
It's like being in a restaurant and
getting the wrong order.
You don't stand up and
announce it to the whole restaurant.
You talk to your server first, right?
You give them a chance to fix it and 99
times out of 100, they will.
Going public first skips that step and it
creates a mess that
didn't need to happen.
Well, I know this one was a little
sensitive, but I think it's important for
all of us to think about how we handle
conflict, especially in a world where
everything can go viral in minutes.
So here's what I want you to do.
The next time you use AI to create
something, whether it's an image, a piece
of copy, a social post, whatever, I want
you to pause before you hit publish.
And I want you to ask
these three questions.
Number one, am I proud of this?
Number two, could this
be misread or cause harm?
And number three, would I be
comfortable if this went viral?
If the answer to any one of those makes
you hesitate, then fix it
before it goes out the door
So let's wrap this up.
Three things to take away from the Frank
Kern and Alex Katoni situation.
Number one, you are responsible for what
AI creates on your behalf.
AI is just the tool.
You are the one that is hitting publish.
So own it.
Number two, review
everything before it goes live.
AI does not have the same
judgment that you and I have.
So make sure you use your
judgment before you hit publish.
And number three, when
conflict happens, go direct first.
A private conversation almost always
leads to a better
outcome than a public callout.
At the end of the day,
AI is incredibly powerful.
It's going to keep getting more powerful,
but the responsibility for how we use it,
that's what stays with us.
And it always will.
Now, do I have all the answers when it
comes to AI and ethics?
Heck no, definitely not.
But my hope is that this conversation
helps you think a little more carefully
about what you put out into the world,
because the more thoughtful we are with
those tools, the more trust we build and
trust in today's world is everything.
Listen, I want to thank you for listening
and I want to encourage you.
If you like the show, please
go and rate it and review it.
And heck, maybe even share it with a
friend and always remember, the