The two tech giants are racing to bring AI to search engines, which can generate text responses to queries. According to research firm MAGNA, the search advertising market will grow 10% to $286 billion this year.
Photo: Reuters
Microsoft is testing ads in its Bing AI chatbot, which began rolling out to users in February, by taking some traditional search ads and inserting them into the AI response, the company said.
In an interview in May, Google's advertising chief Jerry Dischler said the company will also place ads with AI tools, like the experimental Creative Search Experience feature that first launched last month. Google said advertisers can't opt out of the experiment right now.
Some advertisers are wary of their budgets being used in these tests. Advertisers often want to have control over where their ads appear online and are wary of appearing next to inappropriate content.
Microsoft and Google said existing protections on their search engines, including lists of blocked keywords to prevent ads from appearing on inappropriate queries – something that will also apply to their AI search features.
Microsoft and Google have poured billions of dollars into AI, and are under pressure to generate revenue from the technology. This investment also includes investments in other AI companies. For example, Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. Google has a $400 million stake in Anthropic, an OpenAI competitor.
Jason Lee, executive vice president of brand safety at Horizon Media, said testing new ad placements without the consent of brands is a troubling practice for advertisers. Several major advertisers have temporarily pulled their ad spend from Microsoft, according to an ad buyer familiar with the matter.
Huy Hoang (according to Reuters)
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