Generative AI can speed up research organisation, first drafts and variation, but it can also invent facts, flatten local context and expose confidential information. A communications team needs rules before routine use.
Define prohibited inputs: unpublished financials, personal data, legal advice, passwords, private stakeholder records and embargoed material should not enter unapproved tools. Require human verification of names, dates, quotations, statistics and links. AI-generated text should never manufacture a spokesperson quote or simulate a community voice.
Use the technology for bounded tasks and keep a record of material edits. Check output for cultural assumptions, stereotypes and imported terminology that does not fit Ghanaian audiences. Images require additional scrutiny around consent, likeness and misleading realism.
Accountability stays with the organisation. Editors should be able to explain how a claim was sourced even when software helped draft the sentence. Review policy as tools and regulation change, and train junior staff to recognise confident-sounding errors.
Editorial note: Add the organisation’s approved-tool and disclosure policy before publication.
Ethical use of AI in a Ghanaian communications team
