Description: Google’s advertising platform, Google Ads, has allegedly been found to be serving ads on AI-generated content farms that often disseminate misinformation. Despite policies prohibiting such practices, reportedly there are approximately 356 out of 393 ads from major brands that were found to be served by Google on these problematic sites. Particularly concerning according to the reporting were instances where Google Ads were found on sites like MedicalOutline.com, which spreads harmful health misinformation.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Google developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Subaru , Major brands whose advertisements were found on these sites , GNC , General public and Citigroup.
Incident Stats
Incident ID
581
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2023-06-24
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
CSETv1_Annotator-1 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsIncident Number
The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
581
Notes (special interest intangible harm)
Input any notes that may help explain your answers.
4.4 - The websites don't necessarily contain detrimental content, just content that is redundant and of poor quality
Special Interest Intangible Harm
An assessment of whether a special interest intangible harm occurred. This assessment does not consider the context of the intangible harm, if an AI was involved, or if there is characterizable class or subgroup of harmed entities. It is also not assessing if an intangible harm occurred. It is only asking if a special interest intangible harm occurred.
no
Date of Incident Year
The year in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the year, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank.
Enter in the format of YYYY
2023
Date of Incident Month
The month in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the month, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank.
Enter in the format of MM
06
Estimated Date
“Yes” if the data was estimated. “No” otherwise.
Yes
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
technologyreview.com · 2023
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
Google’s programmatic ad product, called Google Ads, is the largest exchange and made $168 billion in advertising revenue last year. The company has come under criticism for serving ads on content farms in the past, even though its own poli…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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