Transparency is not the same as trust

The Story

A Georgia State University and University of South Florida study found that people rated identical products as less sustainable when they were described as AI-designed rather than human-designed.

The researchers connect that reaction to perceived “genuine care”: sustainability is not understood only as efficiency or material performance, but also as evidence of responsibility and concern. Simply disclosing AI use did not remove the scepticism.

For creative teams, this is a useful warning against capability-first messaging. If AI helped make something, the communication still needs to explain the human values, decisions, and accountability guiding the process.