Here’s our AdExchanger.com news roundup today… Want it by email? Participation here.
AdExchanger’s daily news roundup will return on Tuesday, January 17th. We will not be posting any content on Monday, January 16th, in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
non-human capital
Is artificial intelligence the new apprentice? For one agency, the answer is “yes.”
At Codeword, a technology marketing agency located within WE Communication, the new “interns” come in the form of software models producing content and graphic design, Axios Reports. (It’s unclear if Codeword simply relies on ChatGPT and DALL-E or has a different software provider.)
Codeword’s apprentices are called Aiko and Aiden, and apparently, they report to actual humans. Aiko sits under Senior Artistic Director Emilio Ramos, while Aiden will face performance reviews by Senior Editor Terrence Doyle. (Seriously, they’ll both receive performance reviews.)
Aiko and Aiden aren’t ready for client-facing action – but that’s not the point.
“It’s an opportunity to streamline internal processes by eliminating necessary but mind-numbing and time-consuming tasks — or at least passing them on to emotionless interns who don’t get bored,” says Terence Doyle.
Like many of the unpaid interns before them, Echo and Aiden receive no compensation. Instead, Codeword says it will donate the equivalent of interns’ hourly salaries to Grace Hopper Celebration.
This was written by someone
Speaking of AI developments and tech news and reviews, CNET has quietly used “automation technology” to create a series of articles framed as financial explanations, futuristic reports.
Secondary credits “CNET Money Staff”, which, when clicked, does not acknowledge that articles were generated using automation.
However, the first-layer obfuscation is noteworthy, with Google focusing in particular on removing AI-written content and AI-generated images from search results on the first page.
Over the past few months, Google has made significant updates to its search hardware in order to reduce spam and low-quality content. Interestingly, Google considers content to be “low quality” and “artificially generated” as well practically synonymous. From Google’s point of view, content written by technology (*cough * ChatGPT *cough *) is unimportant regardless of the quality of the final product.
Google will likely look into this situation once Microsoft completes the $10 billion Invest in ChatGPTIts parent company, OpenAI, is integrating ChatGPT responses into the Bing search engine.
Look forward to a lot of great debate about whether Google is destroying the news by cutting out advertising revenue or whether ChatGPT is taking over the newsroom jobs. Can’t both be true?
What killed the growth?
A full recession hasn’t happened yet, but Apple’s ATT policy has created a small slump in the social media advertising economy, Eric Seufert writes in Mobile development note.
Throughout 2022, the stock prices of major technology companies fell as interest rates rose. But the impact of ATT on revenue was evident even before the Fed started raising interest rates in March 2022.
Google, Meta, and Snap all cited tough macroeconomic conditions as the reason growth targets were not met. But consumer brands like Nike, Walmart, and Costco have seen their sales and revenue grow.
While consumer spending remains healthy, advertiser spending has collapsed thanks to the impact of ATT on total return on ad spend. When direct response advertising is less efficient, marketers reduce their budgets. The share of advertising revenue generated by iOS devices shrank from 60% in 2020 to 46% in the second quarter of 2022.
Need more proof? Although ad-dependent tech companies are carrying out mass layoffs, the same is not true of the broader US economy. Unemployment remains around 3.5%, its lowest level in 53 years.
Guess social media and DTC advertisers can blame Apple, not the economy, for their problems.
But wait there’s more!
Lowe’s brings advertising sales and One Roof Media Network operations in-house. [Ad Age]
What happened when the olive oil startup apologized. [WSJ]
Neiman Marcus executives make the case for sustainable retail profitability. [WWD]
Players are flocking from premium games to ad-supported free games in an unstable economy. [Digiday]
You are Tenant!
JEGI Clarity promotes Rich Kanevsky to Managing Director. [release]
Power Digital brought in Michael Murray as Chief Product Officer. [release]