17 ms·

> Now, if someone searches for an espresso machine, Gemini will pull up your most relevant products and instantly write a custom explainer highlighting why your

by yuliyp 4mo ago

> Now, if someone searches for an espresso machine, Gemini will pull up your most relevant products and instantly write a custom explainer highlighting why your product may be the right choice for them. This is like the essence of the evil of AI ads distilled down to one sentence. For an advertiser this is a dream. For a user this reads like getting bombarded with ads tailor made just for you based on the context of what would be most effective.

stingraycharles 4mo ago
“For a user this reads like getting bombarded with ads tailor made just for you based on the context of what would be most effective.” Isn’t this what the current search experience already is?
- Jensson 4mo ago
  Ads weren't tailor written by LLM on the fly previously.
- mylasttour 4mo ago
  Before it was: "Shop for balding pills", Now it's going to be: "Your calendar indicates your mother's birthday is tomorrow, your album photos of her living room seem to indicate she likes elephants. In a past LLM conversation you mentioned she has trouble with technology. A good gift idea is the new Google Geminibook with this animal laptop skin. Add to cart?"
  - hightrix 4mo ago
    More like, "Your mom's birthday is tomorrow and you forgot again, didn't you? I've gone ahead and added this perfect gift to your cart that will be delivered in time. I'll purchase and ship it now if you'd like?"
    - boc 4mo ago
      "It's the thought that counts"
gyanchawdhary 4mo ago
[dead]
the__alchemist 4mo ago
Silver lining: Is there a chance the ads will be relevant? Enterprise targeted advertising sophistication level is currently at "He just bought shoes; wow he must like shoes" or "He's 34-45M; make the reels only boobs.
- colonelspace 4mo ago
  The YouTube algorithm seems to be this bad. I listened to a song a few weeks ago... now that song is in almost every page on YouTube for me. Homepage, sidebar, search results. It's just everywhere. I've already listened to it. I don't want to listen to it again every single day for the rest of time.
  - magicalhippo 4mo ago
    Even worse, listening in YouTube Music pollutes my regular YouTube feed. Why have two apps when they're the same thing?
    - hightrix 4mo ago
      This is why I unsubscribed from YouTube Music after having been a Google Play Music user for years. YTM polluting YT just ruined both for me. Now I use a different music streaming platform and have history turned off on YouTube.
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]
  - ghost-process 4mo ago
    Apologies. That's probably because of people like me. I listen to the same 5-6 songs and click through on the home page.
pryelluw 4mo ago
Can’t wait for the AI rated™ product reviews. “This coffee maker doubles as a coin bank for your collection of rare pennies. Why brew a boring cup of coffee? Start your day with the taste of copper.”
avaer 4mo ago
It'll get worse. Just wait until Gemini is writing recommendations for political candidates based on who got the bid.
SlinkyOnStairs 4mo ago
It's just plain fraud. LLMs are hallucinatory, this is a basic fact of their basic design. You can't have them write product descriptions especially in advertisements, without any human supervision. If the LLM invents a product feature that doesn't exist, you have advertising fraud done fraud. And if the LLM un-invents a feature that does exist, you have done fraud and pissed off the advertiser. To not have these risks, you need to play it incredibly safe. E.g.: The bottom half of the Vertuo Up's blurb is just off the website. <meta name="description" content="Vertuo Up is our new fast coffee machine, ready to brew in just 3 seconds. Enjoy 6 cup sizes and app connectivity for effortless control. Shop Pearl White."> This would've been on old-Google. If you're an advertiser, Google is going to charge you their premium rates for a sloppy first paragraph you could've put there yourself if you wanted. Note how the search query in that example asks for a "compact machine" but the explainer doesn't say anything about the size of the machine. The dimensions are right on the product's webpage. This advertising product doesn't want to risk the LLM fucking up something like the dimensions, so it just does nothing at all. And the kicker is that none of this has to be a problem. It's Google, they can just ask the advertisers to hand them over a standard-format datasheet, and put the LLM to work figuring out what parts of the data the user wants and include those verbatim. If the LLM hallucinates, it creates a perfectly truthful but slightly less effective ad. If the LLM doesn't hallucinate, you've created an ad product that is better than most product comparison sites, something users want to use.
- Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 4mo ago
  Well. If you were a for profit company and were offered to get the most effective ads ever at the cost of 0.1% of advertisement containing falsehoods about your product, would you take it? What about if you know your competitors are taking the offer?
  - kay_o 4mo ago
    You would need to ensure the legal death penalty will significantly outperform the conversion rate.
    - 4mo ago
everdrive 4mo ago
I do wonder if that sort of system would be responsive to feedback. I would have told it something like "because you advertised this espresso machine to me, I will explicitly never purchase it. It's effectively banned from my household. Never recommend a product again." Maybe I'd just be shouting into the void.

by yuliyp 4mo ago

stingraycharles 4mo ago

“For a user this reads like getting bombarded with ads tailor made just for you based on the context of what would be most effective.” Isn’t this what the current search experience already is?

Jensson 4mo ago
Ads weren't tailor written by LLM on the fly previously.
mylasttour 4mo ago
Before it was: "Shop for balding pills", Now it's going to be: "Your calendar indicates your mother's birthday is tomorrow, your album photos of her living room seem to indicate she likes elephants. In a past LLM conversation you mentioned she has trouble with technology. A good gift idea is the new Google Geminibook with this animal laptop skin. Add to cart?"
- hightrix 4mo ago
  More like, "Your mom's birthday is tomorrow and you forgot again, didn't you? I've gone ahead and added this perfect gift to your cart that will be delivered in time. I'll purchase and ship it now if you'd like?"
  - boc 4mo ago
    "It's the thought that counts"

gyanchawdhary 4mo ago

[dead]

the__alchemist 4mo ago

Silver lining: Is there a chance the ads will be relevant? Enterprise targeted advertising sophistication level is currently at "He just bought shoes; wow he must like shoes" or "He's 34-45M; make the reels only boobs.

colonelspace 4mo ago
The YouTube algorithm seems to be this bad. I listened to a song a few weeks ago... now that song is in almost every page on YouTube for me. Homepage, sidebar, search results. It's just everywhere. I've already listened to it. I don't want to listen to it again every single day for the rest of time.
- magicalhippo 4mo ago
  Even worse, listening in YouTube Music pollutes my regular YouTube feed. Why have two apps when they're the same thing?
  - hightrix 4mo ago
    This is why I unsubscribed from YouTube Music after having been a Google Play Music user for years. YTM polluting YT just ruined both for me. Now I use a different music streaming platform and have history turned off on YouTube.
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
- ghost-process 4mo ago
  Apologies. That's probably because of people like me. I listen to the same 5-6 songs and click through on the home page.

pryelluw 4mo ago

Can’t wait for the AI rated™ product reviews. “This coffee maker doubles as a coin bank for your collection of rare pennies. Why brew a boring cup of coffee? Start your day with the taste of copper.”

avaer 4mo ago

It'll get worse. Just wait until Gemini is writing recommendations for political candidates based on who got the bid.

SlinkyOnStairs 4mo ago

It's just plain fraud. LLMs are hallucinatory, this is a basic fact of their basic design. You can't have them write product descriptions especially in advertisements, without any human supervision. If the LLM invents a product feature that doesn't exist, you have advertising fraud done fraud. And if the LLM un-invents a feature that does exist, you have done fraud and pissed off the advertiser. To not have these risks, you need to play it incredibly safe. E.g.: The bottom half of the Vertuo Up's blurb is just off the website. <meta name="description" content="Vertuo Up is our new fast coffee machine, ready to brew in just 3 seconds. Enjoy 6 cup sizes and app connectivity for effortless control. Shop Pearl White."> This would've been on old-Google. If you're an advertiser, Google is going to charge you their premium rates for a sloppy first paragraph you could've put there yourself if you wanted. Note how the search query in that example asks for a "compact machine" but the explainer doesn't say anything about the size of the machine. The dimensions are right on the product's webpage. This advertising product doesn't want to risk the LLM fucking up something like the dimensions, so it just does nothing at all. And the kicker is that none of this has to be a problem. It's Google, they can just ask the advertisers to hand them over a standard-format datasheet, and put the LLM to work figuring out what parts of the data the user wants and include those verbatim. If the LLM hallucinates, it creates a perfectly truthful but slightly less effective ad. If the LLM doesn't hallucinate, you've created an ad product that is better than most product comparison sites, something users want to use.

Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 4mo ago
Well. If you were a for profit company and were offered to get the most effective ads ever at the cost of 0.1% of advertisement containing falsehoods about your product, would you take it? What about if you know your competitors are taking the offer?
- kay_o 4mo ago
  You would need to ensure the legal death penalty will significantly outperform the conversion rate.
  - 4mo ago

everdrive 4mo ago

I do wonder if that sort of system would be responsive to feedback. I would have told it something like "because you advertised this espresso machine to me, I will explicitly never purchase it. It's effectively banned from my household. Never recommend a product again." Maybe I'd just be shouting into the void.