Meta restricts political advertisers from using generative AI ad tools

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced new restrictions on the use of its generative AI advertising products by political campaigns and regulated industries. The move is in response to concerns that such AI tools could amplify the dissemination of election misinformation. Although Meta's advertising standards already prohibit content debunked by fact-checking partners, they previously had no specific rules governing AI use.

In an update to its help centre, Meta disclosed that its Generative AI ad creation tools in Ads Manager will not be available for advertisers in regulated sectors such as housing, employment, credit, social issues, elections, politics, health, pharmaceuticals, or financial services. The company aims to develop safeguards and a better understanding of potential risks in using Generative AI for potentially sensitive topics in these industries.

Meta's decision follows its recent expansion of AI-powered advertising tools for advertisers, enabling them to instantly create ad elements in response to text prompts. Initially, these tools were available to a limited group of advertisers and are set to be rolled out globally to all advertisers next year.

The tech industry has seen a rush to launch generative AI ad products and virtual assistants, particularly in response to the success of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. However, there has been limited information on safety measures, making Meta's policy on political ads a significant step in AI regulation.

Alphabet's Google also introduced similar image-customising generative AI ad tools recently. It plans to keep politics out of its AI products by blocking specific "political keywords" from being used as prompts and requiring election-related ads to disclose synthetic content depicting real people or events.

Meta's decision to restrict AI in political advertising aligns with its broader initiative to address AI-generated content's potential misuse. Nick Clegg, Meta's top policy executive, has highlighted the need to update rules in response to AI's evolving role in political advertising and election interference. He emphasised the importance of preparing for technology's impact on future elections.

Additionally, Meta has taken steps to limit AI-generated video content and committed to watermarking AI-generated content. While the company currently bans misleading AI-generated video content, its Oversight Board is reviewing this approach in response to a case involving a doctored video of US President Joe Biden.

(With Reuters Inputs)