Google revealed that it banned and removed over 5.5 billion ads in 2023 for breaking its policies. This equates to more than 9,000 commercials each minute as highlights in Ads Safety Report 2023.
The impact of generative AI was the most significant trend in 2023. This new technology brought major and exciting improvements to the digital advertising sector, from performance optimization to image modification.
The paper details how Google used AI and large-language models, such as Gemini, to accelerate, strengthen, and improve enforcement activities. AI-powered enforcement efforts have allowed the brand to enforce its policies on a larger scale.
According to Duncan Lennox, VP and GM of Ads Privacy and Safety, frauds and fraud across all online platforms were on the rise in 2023. Bad actors are continually developing their strategies for manipulating digital advertising to defraud both consumers and legal businesses.
“The bad actors behind these ads have grown more sophisticated” , he stated. “Take, for example, our policy regarding Unreliable Financial Claims.
These include advertisements for get-rich-quick scams. They changed their strategies and tailored adverts around new financial services or goods, such as investing advice or digital currency, to defraud users.”
To combat the ever-changing dangers, Google had to change its policies, develop rapid-response enforcement teams, and strengthen its detection techniques. He further said
“Our safety teams have long relied on AI-powered machine learning tools to enforce our standards at scale.
As a result, we’ve been able to recognize and block billions of malicious advertising before they reach users.”
However, the company acknowledged that generative AI created additional obstacles. “We take these concerns seriously and will describe the steps we are taking to address them straight on.Our teams are embracing revolutionary technologies, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), to protect people better online,” he said.
Overall, AI has helped the platform improve enforcement on all fronts. In 2023, Google prohibited or erased more than 5.5 billion ads and 12.7 million advertising accounts, substantially double the previous year.
The firm also prohibited or restricted ad serving on over 2.1 billion publisher pages, a slight increase over 2022, and in 2023, enforcement actions on over 395,000 publisher websites by Google.
