AdAge Top 5 AI roundup

AdAge covers 5 examples of AI activations and platform news from the last few weeks, including some that raise questions about deepfakes and broader ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI…

Artificial intelligence provided advertisers with more cautionary tales in recent weeks, including backlash to Under Armour’s new film that borrowed from the brand’s past iconography to produce a new AI-powered commercial. And last week, there was confusion over a startup AI ad firm that creates deepfakes of influencers, whose images are manipulated to hawk products on social media. The videos take real moments, filmed by influencers, but change their speech to recite brand messages. 

These AI activations, from major brands to minor creators, are affecting the ad world. Marketers eagerly try new text, image, voice and video AI, but some brands are avoiding the technology. As Ad Age reported last week, more brands are telling agencies to refrain from using their assets to train AI and avoid generative AI in their campaigns. There does appear to be a slowdown in the rollout and adoption of advanced AI systems, too. For instance, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, revealed Sora, the video generator in February, but it is still only available to invited testers. This week, OpenAI showed off a “synthetic voices” tool but promised to take that slowly given the sensitivities around being able to computer-generate people’s voices.

On the positive side, Lay’s, the packaged foods brand, ran an experiment with AI-generated voices as part of a campaign in Brazil this month, which shined a light on sexism in sports. That campaign, and more, are part of Ad Age’s AI Creativity Top 5, our running look into the ways AI influences advertising and culture.

Full story at AdAge.