Advertisements from 141 top brands appear on unreliable websites created by AI

While many marketers have eagerly seized the opportunity to experiment with artificial intelligence (AI), the rapidly developing technology has also created several challenges for the industry, including brand safety. A recent report by NewsGuard sheds light on the vulnerability of websites created by AI, highlighting ongoing challenges related to the lack of transparency in managing programmatic advertising funds. This revelation brings to the forefront the issue of website safety, emphasizing the need for careful handling and transparency in managing programmatic advertising resources.

 If you want to know more contact our specialists!

Specifically, NewsGuard identified 393 programmatic ads from 141 major brands that appeared on 55 of the 217 UAINs between May and June 2023. The ads were detected by analysts who used the internet in the US, Germany, France, and Italy. All the ads were running alongside articles containing errors produced by AI-generated chatbots. Over 90% were delivered by Google Ads. As advertisers may have been unaware of their presence on such sites, NewsGuard did not name them. However, it stated that the list of companies included, among others, banks, financial services firms, luxury department stores, two global e-commerce platforms, and streaming services.

UAINs have “exploded” in recent months, with content on these websites largely written by bots. These sites have little to no human oversight and have the ability to produce an incredible amount of content. One site identified by NewsGuard produces an average of more than 1,200 articles per day. NewsGuard has identified 217 such websites, which it monitors on the UAIN website tracker. This is up from just 49 a month ago. Many of these sites do not display ads from major brands or run any programmatic advertising at all.

The report further highlights the challenges of programmatic advertising, as not only does the brand image suffer from appearing on such sites, but money spent on such ads could be used more effectively elsewhere. The National Association of Advertisers found that $13 billion could be saved by improving programmatic advertising and eliminating clickbait from ad markets. However, NewsGuard suggests that this may not be so simple. The company notes that while many companies and ad agencies maintain “do not include” lists, these may not be able to keep up with AI technology.

Source