Google steps up generative AI ad efforts

Google is reported to be on the verge of adding a generative AI element to its Performance Max program that will offer advertisers the option to input creative elements and see tailored campaigns come out the other end.

AI-powered ads 2023
According to the Financial Times, referencing an internal Google presentation titled ‘AI-powered ads 2023’, advertisers supply a range of creative content ingredients – the video, imagery and text for a campaign – that can then be mixed to generate ads aimed at reaching particular audiences or achieving specified KPIs.

Meta is also planning to bring generative AI to its ad systems this year. 

Why it matters

Two things. One is the widely reported ability that generative AI systems have to fabricate content – what the tech industry euphemistically terms ‘hallucinations’. The Financial Times quotes one person familiar with the Google presentation saying the tool “is optimised to convert new customers and has no idea what the truth is”. 

While Google is making reassuring noises about this aspect, a second, related issue is how multiple versions of an ad being spewed out by generative AI can be monitored for advertising standards. 

Political advertising on social media in recent years has seen a plethora of personalised ads being directed at different groups, which election monitoring bodies have found difficult to track.

Sourced from Financial Times