Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

What's Up THIS WEEK?! ⚠️ THE AI WATERMARK PANIC: What’s Real, What’s False & What to Do | Ep. 553

August 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

"If you use Claude to write copy, that's gonna be a major problem for you."

That blunt assessment from Jay Schwedelson opens a necessary conversation about what actually changed in the AI landscape over the past week — and what hasn't. Two major developments at Anthropic and OpenAI have created real operational implications for marketers, along with a fair amount of panic that doesn't hold up under scrutiny. This episode cuts through the noise on the watermark situation, explains what's actually happening under the hood, and offers workable paths forward for anyone using AI tools in their marketing workflow.

What Claude Actually Did — and Didn't Do

On August 2nd, Anthropic quietly rolled out an invisible, machine-readable watermark into any text Claude generates or heavily edits. The motivation was compliance with the European Union's AI Act, which mandates transparency around AI-generated content. But here's the catch: Anthropic didn't limit this to European users. It applied globally, across every tier of the product, including paid subscriptions.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Welcome & Episode Intro** - Jay introduces the "What's Up THIS WEEK" format and jumps straight into the biggest topic in marketing and AI right now.
2 (01:33) **What Claude Actually Did** - Jay explains the specific watermarking action Anthropic (Claude's parent company) took on August 2nd.
3 (03:45) **The Real Danger: Using Claude to Write Copy** - Jay clarifies what the watermark means for different use cases of Claude.
4 (05:21) **ChatGPT: A Completely Different Situation** - Jay pivots to OpenAI, explaining that their watermarking strategy is very different from Claude's.
5 (06:33) **How to Circumvent ChatGPT's Image Watermarks** - Jay provides a practical, tested workflow for using AI images safely.
6 (08:36) **The Instagram Font Change: A Dork Trend** - Jay dismisses the recent Instagram logo/font change as a non-event for marketers.
7 (09:10) **Sponsor Break: CallRail** - Jay gives a quick sponsor message for CallRail.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Jay Schwedelson

Show Notes

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact

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Check out Jay Schwedelson's new book: Stupider People Have Done It

All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206

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MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, CallRail!

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Something quietly shipped on August 2nd that changes how you should be using AI for anything you plan to publish. Jay Schwedelson breaks down what Anthropic and OpenAI actually built i