Google will label ads that were made or edited with AI

In short: Google is rolling out a new “how this ad was made” option that tells you when an ad was created or edited with AI.

What happened

Google says it will start showing a new disclosure, or notice, inside its “My Ad Center” panel. You can open this panel by clicking the three-dot menu or the info icon on ads you see in Google Search, YouTube, and Google Discover.

My Ad Center already lets you do things like block an ad, report an ad, and see why Google showed it to you. With this update, it will also include a section called “how this ad was made.” It will indicate whether the advertiser used generative AI tools (tools that can create new images or text, like a super fast design assistant) to create or edit the ad.

Google says the disclosure will turn on automatically when advertisers use Google’s own AI ad tools. If an advertiser made the ad with AI somewhere else, the advertiser will have to turn on a new setting to say AI was involved. Google says it will not run its own check to confirm whether an ad used AI.

Google noted that in some places, ads may also be labeled as AI when local laws require it. Until now, Google mainly required this kind of disclosure for election ads.

Why it matters

AI can make product photos and scenes that look real even when they are not. This label is like an ingredient list for an ad. It gives people more context so they can judge what they are seeing before they click or buy.

Source: TechCrunch AI