Jul 03 2023 5 mins
In the tech-laden era we live in, artificial intelligence has grown to be more than just a powerful tool – it's an unstoppable phenomenon that's leaving its imprint on every facet of our lives. Yet, amid the riveting tales of AI-fueled possibilities, an unsettling new trend is emerging in the digital landscape. A recent report by NewsGuard, a company tracking misinformation, reveals a growing battalion of AI-generated content farms, exploiting the web's automated advertising model for profit, and unfortunately, finding substantial success.
To give you a sense of scale, these low-grade AI content farms have inadvertently gained the backing of more than 141 global brands. While NewsGuard hasn't publicly shamed these brands by dropping names, it did share a general profile of their kind, including several notable banks and financial services, two massive consumer tech companies, and even a heavyweight digital platform based out of Silicon Valley.
When dissecting the income stream of these AI-spawned webpages, programmatic advertising sits at the crux of it all, according to Lorenzo Arvanitis, an analyst at NewsGuard. Speaking to MIT Technology Review, Arvanitis noted how numerous Fortune 500 companies and prominent brands – all oblivious to the matter – are channeling their ad dollars into these sites.
This revelation brings forth an unnerving reality – the parasitic leeching off the internet's value isn't just surviving; it's thriving on the riches it's extracting.
What's contributing to this disconcerting state of affairs? A significant factor lies in the democratization of AI tools designed for consumer use. The startling ease with which one can kickstart a site, crammed with endless content, becomes apparent when you factor in AI programs like OpenAI's ChatGPT. These tools are a dream come true for those interested in mass text generation without a second thought for quality.
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