Specifically, NewsGuard identified 393 programmatic ads from 141 major brands that appeared on 55 out of 217 Unreliable AI-Generated News (UAIN) sites between May and June 2023. These ads were detected by analysts using the internet in the US, Germany, France, and Italy. All the ads were running alongside articles containing errors produced by AI chatbots. Over 90% of these ads were delivered through Google Ads. While advertisers may not have been aware of their presence on such sites, NewsGuard did not name them. However, the list included, among others, banks, financial services companies, luxury department stores, two global e-commerce platforms, and streaming services.
UAIN sites have “exploded” in recent months, with content on these sites largely generated by bots. These sites have minimal to no human oversight and have the capacity to produce an immense amount of content. One site identified by NewsGuard produces over 1,200 articles per day on average. NewsGuard has identified 217 such sites, which it monitors with its UAIN site tracker. This is up from just 49 a month ago. Many of these sites do not display ads from major brands or do not run any programmatic advertising at all.
The report further underscores the challenges of programmatic advertising, as not only does the brand image suffer from appearing on such sites, but the funds spent on these ads could be more effectively used elsewhere. The Association of National Advertisers found that $13 billion could be saved by improving programmatic advertising and blocking click-bait from ad marketplaces. However, NewsGuard indicates that this may not be so straightforward. The company notes that while many companies and ad agencies maintain “do-not-include” lists, these may struggle to keep up with AI technology.
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