Quality Over Quantity in Online Advertising

56sec Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Many companies pay Facebook and Google to place ads on AI-generated content meant for bots, resulting in wasted money on dead and spam websites. Studies suggest that a significant portion of programmatic ads are served to bots instead of real users. The business model of Facebook and Google revolves around selling ads, making them incredibly wealthy compared to traditional journalism companies.

Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler to discuss the AI-generated spam filling Facebook, how the platform seems to have given up trying to stop it, and where the internet goes from here.

Jason Koebler is the co-host of the 404 Media Podcast.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Jason wrote about his theory of the zombie internet and what he’s been seeing on Facebook.
Back in 2018, Motherboard reported on the rules Facebook gave its content moderators.
Users of Facebook Free Basics and Wikipedia Zero in Angola found out how to make their own video streaming service for free.

Support the show