MED-AI: Google, Spotify and the Turing test

There is a lot going on when it comes to AI and that’s just in the media and advertising world. Tech reporter Ahmed Elkady has you covered with MED-AI, a weekly summary of what’s happening and why it matters.

Google

At its Google Marketing Live event, Google announced that it will begin using generative AI to automatically improve Search ads’ relevancy. The tech giant will create and adapt Search ads based on contextual information derived from the query. For example, if a person searches for “skin care for dry sensitive skin” the AI can create a headline matching the query closely such as “Soothe your dry, sensitive skin”. The new headline is generated using content from the brand’s landing page and existing ads.

Spotify

According to Bill Simons, founder of Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, Spotify is developing AI tools which are trained on the voices of its hosts, to create targeted ads. “I don’t think Spotify is going to get mad at me for this… there is going to be a way to use my voice for the ads. You have to obviously give the approval for the voice, but it opens up, from an advertising standpoint, all these different great possibilities.”

AI ads pass ad Turing Test

In a competition described as an ‘ad Turing test’ hosted at the BrXnd Conference on AI and marketing, AI-generated ads proved to be indistinguishable from human made ads. A jury of marketing professionals struggled to determine whether pint ads about a fictional energy drink brands were produced by marketing students or by generative AI tools, with only 57% identifying the ads correctly.