Featured Images

Besides a thoughtful and thought-provoking title and subtitle, the visuals of a piece set the tone for the reader's experience.

In my experience, most AI assisted or generated pieces have only a Featured Image if posted on an online writing platform like Vocal. Both Vocal and Medium require an attributed Feature Image in order to submit content for publishing.

Attributing Visuals

Attributing is giving credit to the originator or creator of something. When using a visual in submitted online content on Vocal or Medium, this is done by clicking on the image and adding the source of the image at the bottom on the image.

The image at the top of this chapter was created by the author using the Canva program, so that is the text under the image.

Several platforms, like Vocal, automatically add the attribute when using a linked provider such as UnSplash. It's easy and convenient, and the user doesn't have to worry about not being in compliance with the platform standards.

As, if not more, important: properly attributing images safeguards the user from legal action by the owner!

Not every image found on the internet is available for someone to use, even if they do identify the originator. That's one of the reasons so many users go to UnSplash for images since the vetting of use has already been done. It's a good idea to carefully read the requirements of the platform to which one posts as well as the permissions on the site on which the image was found. On Medium there is also an option to add Alt descriptions, which are discoverable when the platform reads the story aloud, and makes it accessible for the visually impaired.

For that reason, creating your own visuals on Canva, or an AI-site, then adding the appropriate attribution is also a safe alternative.

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Clues to AI Content Found In the Featured Image

Two clues to AI content are found in our example content.

No Attribution

This is by no means unique to AI generated content. It was found, or rather -NOT found!- on five of the eleven examples, such as this:

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TOO Much Text!

This user copied the entire response from the AI generator and pasted it under the image as the caption. AI is often quite polite, as one can see by its response of 'Certainly!'

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Buzzwords

Both of the examples shown contain buzzwords: words that often occur in AI generated content. This will be explored more in the Location Names and Vocabulary chapters.

Take a moment now to jot down the words you think may be buzzwords. Don't look ahead!

The next chapter is Opening Paragraphs.

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The content above is from my work in progress, described in this Vocal post:

This is the link to the previous chapter: Titles and Subtitles

Please let me know in the comments: What buzzwords have you found? Have you been able to pick out AI generated content?