The Brief – Thursday 23 April: Meta AI, WFA Risk Barometer, WPP-Google Earth and more

🤖 Silverside, the AI innovation lab known for creating AI ad campaigns for Coca-Cola, Amazon and Svedka, has launched in the UK. Daniel Lipman has been appointed to lead the UK operation as MD. (Silverside)

⚖️ The Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit advancing consumer interests, has sued Meta alleging its admission of earning billions in revenue from scam ads violates US consumer protection laws. (Wired)

🤖 Meanwhile, Meta has expanded its AI assistant for advertisers globally following a successful test with US-based small- and medium-sized businesses. The tool, which acts as an “always-on” AI advisor within Meta’s Ads Manager and Business Suite, is now available to all businesses across EMEA, APAC, and LATAM, and includes multi-language capability. (Meta)

🖱️ Meta is also installing new tracking software on its US-based employees’ computers to capture their mouse movements and keystrokes for use in training AI models. (Reuters)

😬 According to the World Federation of Advertisers’ latest Risk Barometer survey, more than 90% of senior marketers and policy leades say the business environment is less predictable and riskier than 12 months ago, with 79% saying it “does not feel like business as usual”. (WFA)

🌍 WPP has integrated Google Earth AI models and datasets into its agentic marketing platform, Open. Through the tie-up, WPP will give clients access to traffic, weather, and foot traffic data, aimed at helping improve understanding of physical consumer behaviour. (WPP)

🗯️ Executives from Meta, TikTok and Roblox faced questioning from MPs this week about the impact of screen time and social meida on children. Snapchat was asked to attend but was unable. The executives insisted their platforms were not designed to be addictive and argued that an under-16 social media ban would be unenforceable. (The Guardian)

🚗 ITV has partnered with connected car company Xperi to launch ITVX on its automotive video platform DTS AutoStage Video Service, powered by TiVo. The agreement means ITVX is now available in a range of BMW and Mini vehicles, with additional vehicles from Mercedes-Benz receiving the services in the near future. (ITV)

🤖 Stagwell has expanded its partnership with The Trade Desk and will become the first global marketing network to adopt its Koa Agents, new AI agents designed for media planning, buying, optimisation and measurement across the open internet. (Stagwell)

🎮 Venatus has partnered with Roblox to become an official reseller of Rewarded Video ads within the gaming platform across the UK, France and Germany. (Venatus)