Is There Still Good Ads on Social Platforms?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In the past, people were really excited about digital advertising, right? You could reach a lot of people. But now, he says major social media platforms are like, quote, the mall in your hometown that used to be the good mall. There's no longer Macy's there, it's just a calendar store and a place selling beepers. This is not to say that there isn't good advertising on social platforms. It's just, there seems to be a sentiment shift, where, you know, corporate America is thinking, I don't just have to be on these platforms.

“I’m Sydney, and I’m in love with you. 😘”

A conversation with Bing AI (aka Sydney) turns romantic and bizarre. Why Microsoft’s AI search tool appears more powerful — and unsettling — than we thought. Then, inside Elon Musk’s quest to be the most popular user on Twitter.

Plus: It’s not just you. Online ads have gotten much worse.

On today’s episode:

Tiffany Hsu is a technology reporter at The New York Times who covers misinformation and disinformation.
Zoë Schiffer is the managing editor of Platformer.

Additional reading:

Bing AI appeared to have a split personality in a conversation with Kevin Roose, a “Hard Fork” co-host.
Elon Musk ordered changes to Twitter’s algorithm after his Tweets did not perform as well as he desired.
Why digital ads are so bad these days.