As Taboola prepared to launch its GenAI Ad Maker, a tool that lets advertisers create ad images within the platform, it faced a consequential question about whether AI-generated ad images would perform well with real consumers, and under what conditions. Working with Taboola, we construct a quasi-experimental comparison of 4,633 ‘sibling ads,’ meaning AI-generated and human-made images launched by the same advertisers, in identical campaign settings, at the same time. These ads span more than 369 million impressions and 2.5 million clicks. We do not find a detectable average click-through-rate disadvantage for AI-generated images relative to their human-made siblings. However, this average masks an important boundary condition: ads with AI-generated images outperform human-made ads when the AI images do not ‘look like AI.’ We identify key visual features influencing consumers’ perceptions of whether an ad looks AI-generated. While AI generates sharper, clearer, and less blurry images with larger faces, consumers associate these features with human-made ads. On the other hand, in line with consumers’ expectations, aesthetics, lower warmth, and intense color saturation in ads signal AI generation. These findings support Taboola’s roll-out communication, advertiser guidance, and continued refinement of the GenAI Ad Maker.
Variety Effects in Mobile Advertising
Mobile app users are often exposed to a sequence of short-lived marketing interventions (e.g., ads) within each usage session. This study examines how an increase in the variety of ads shown in a session affects a user's response to the next ad. The authors leverage the quasi-experimental variation in ad assignment in their data and propose an empirical framework that accounts for different types of confounding to isolate the effects of a unit increase in variety. Across a series of models, the authors consistently show that an increase in ad variety in a session results in a higher response rate to the next ad: holding all else fixed, a unit increase in variety of the prior sequence of ads can increase the click-through rate on the next ad by approximately 13%. The authors then explore the underlying mechanism and document empirical evidence for an attention-based account. The article offers important managerial implications by identifying a source of interdependence across ad exposures that is often ignored in the design of advertising auctions. Furthermore, the attention-based mechanism suggests that platforms can incorporate real-time attention measures to help advertisers with targeting dynamics.
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
In Texas, AI-generated political ads are blurring the line between real and fake - Poynter
Experts say increasingly realistic campaign ads could make it harder for voters to distinguish authentic messages from fabricated ones
Hugging Face Researchers Warn AI-Generated Video Consumes Much More Power Than Expected - Slashdot
"Researchers have found that the carbon footprint of generative AI-based tools that can turn text prompts into images and videos is far worse than we previously thought," writes Futurism: As detailed in a new paper, researchers from the open-source AI platform Hugging Face found that the energy de...
Hello Local Business, Your AI Ads Are Costing You Customers
'Even if this was a genre popularised by human artists, it would still look like shit'
Brands using AI-generated influencers to promote products on social media
Investigation finds AI content that purports to show genuine customers, prompting calls for greater transparency
Republican AI Ad Uses Cutting Edge Tech to Tell Age Old Lies
A political ad made by the GOP in response to Biden's reelection announcement imagines a dystopia using AI-generated imagery.
Meta Failed to Catch Hundreds of AI Child Abuse Ads. Some Included Images of Real Kids
Images of real children—including a member of a European royal family—were used to create some of the 350 ads containing child sexual abuse. Lawmakers say they plan to investigate.
Ugly AI Food Photos Are Only the Beginning
Restaurant menus with AI-generated food images are going viral for their off-putting aesthetic. But AI’s impact on modern menus runs even deeper.
AI may fatally wound web’s ad model, warns Tim Berners-Lee
Web inventor warns reliance on AI agents threatens multibillion-dollar revenues for Google and Meta
“This is the AI men actually use”: Meta ads pushed apps nudifying real teens
Meta dragged its feet removing ads that nudify young girls' Instagram pics.
Meta’s going to put AI-generated images in your Facebook and Instagram feeds
Facebook and Instagram feeds are about to get messier.
AI-synthesized faces are indistinguishable from real faces and more trustworthy
Artificial intelligence (AI)–synthesized text, audio, image, and video are being weaponized for the purposes of nonconsensual intimate imagery, financial fraud, and disinformation campaigns. Our evaluation of the photorealism of AI-synthesized faces indicates that synthesis engines have passed through the uncanny valley and are capable of creating faces that are indistinguishable—and more trustworthy—than real faces.
AI-synthesized faces are indistinguishable from real faces and more trustworthy
Artificial intelligence (AI)–synthesized text, audio, image, and video are being weaponized for the purposes of nonconsensual intimate imagery, financial fraud, and disinformation campaigns. Our evaluation of the photorealism of AI-synthesized faces indicates that synthesis engines have passed through the uncanny valley and are capable of creating faces that are indistinguishable—and more trustworthy—than real faces.
The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/microsoft-copilot-com…
