Incentivizing Authentic Human Effort In The Generative AI Era: A Mechanism Design Approach

The rapid adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) has transformed user-generated content into a critical strategic asset for platforms.However, platforms face a dual threat: synthetic content pollution caused by high-volume AI-generated content (AIGC) and the consequent crowding-out of authentic humangenerated content (HGC).This paper proposes a mechanism design framework to address these challenges under conditions of imperfect AIGC detection.We analyze the platform's strategic trade-off between short-term user engagement and long-term valuation.The anticipated findings provide a theoretical basis for designing optimal incentive contracts to sustain the long-term value of UGC content in the GenAI era.