Welfare Implications of Democratization in Content Creation

64 Pages Posted: 20 Dec 2023 Last revised: 13 Mar 2025

See all articles by Tianxin Zou

Tianxin Zou

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration

Zijun (June) Shi

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST)

Yue Wu

University of Pittsburgh - Katz Graduate School of Business

Date Written: December 12, 2023

Abstract

The rise of content-creation technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) has reshaped the way people produce and consume content. These technologies democratize content creation, enabling inexperienced individuals to generate content that rivals the quality produced by professionals. This paper adopts a game-theoretic model to study how the democratization of content creation affects welfare. While the content-democratization technology can assist low-quality creators in improving their content quality, it can precipitate a flood of low-quality content in the market and crowd out high-quality content production, leading to losses in welfare. When the content quality of the low-quality creators is at a low level, the technology reduces welfare; when it is at a high level, the technology raises welfare.
Furthermore, when platforms can more effectively screen content and promote high-quality content, welfare rises but the technology is more likely to result in a welfare loss. In addition, the paper analyzes the welfare impact of the technology when it influences content variety, when creators have limited technology accessibility, and when consumers are averse to technology-generated content. Our findings help explain the distinct impacts of content democratization in different industries.

Keywords: generative AI, ChatGPT, content creation, attention competition, consumer welfare, game theory

JEL Classification: O33, L82, L86

Suggested Citation

Zou, Tianxin and Shi, Zijun (June) and Wu, Yue, Welfare Implications of Democratization in Content Creation (December 12, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4662282 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4662282

Tianxin Zou (Contact Author)

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration ( email )

Gainesville, FL 32611
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/view/tianxin-zou/home

Zijun (June) Shi

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) ( email )

Clearwater Bay
Kowloon, 999999
Hong Kong

Yue Wu

University of Pittsburgh - Katz Graduate School of Business ( email )

Pittsburgh, PA 15260
United States

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