Ad industry insiders have consistently warned that generative AI would ignite an explosion in made-for-advertising (MFA) sites that cynically monetize via programmatic ad tech.
Well, research is starting to prove the case.
A study released Tuesday by advertising supply chain intelligence company DecryptAds uncovered more than 2,100 AI-generated recipe sites that take a page straight out of the MFA playbook, with multiple overlapping ad placements crammed onto pages filled by low-effort content. DecryptAds found ads from major blue chip and Fortune 500 brands appearing on these recipe sites.
The report examines sites populated by AI-generated recipes, although the same publishers operate all sorts of other ad-supported sites, such as political news aggregators and car, anime, and video game forums.
By examining ads.txt and sellers.json files, DecryptAds determined that the recipe sites appear to be monetized by SSPs that work with ad tech partners located in what DecryptAds refers to as “risky geos.” These “risky geos” are associated with high degrees of cybercrime or often have adversarial relationships with the US, according to Zach Edwards, co-founder and chief of product and research at DecryptAds.
The idea that US citizens – including, potentially, government officials – can access these sites, have their data harvested by ad tech vendors, and possibly be targeted with malvertising schemes presents major cybersecurity concerns, Edwards told AdExchanger. However, he noted that DecryptAds has not uncovered evidence of any crimes committed by these sites or their ad tech partners.
Regardless, the ad inventory on the sites is of dubious value, Edwards said. Just like with MFA, the sites are packed to the gills with ad placements designed to game viewability.
They duplicate viral recipe trends or copy popular pages from other cooking sites to produce close-enough versions that were clearly not reviewed by a person. The sites sometimes feature crazy foods that only make sense as a bucket of search keywords (like “Hot Cocoa Buffalo Chicken Gingerbread Dip with Marshmallow Topping”).
But to anyone with eyes, it should be clear that these sites have no place in a healthy programmatic supply chain, Edwards said, especially in light of recent Google Search changes that deprioritize sites featuring AI-generated authors and creators.
But whether to serve ads on such sites is a choice that many SSPs are still grappling with.
AI avatars
Part of what makes these sites hard to police is that they’re built to look like the work of real people.
The networks of sites uncovered by DecryptAds feature fabricated authors on their “about” pages. These author profiles often include AI-generated human avatars, or in some cases, stock images, stolen pictures of real chefs, and even slightly altered images of celebrities like actress Emily Blunt.
These sites rarely disclose that their authors are not real people, which means they run afoul of a Google helpful content update rolled out just this month.
The new Google Search policy states that “fabricating creator profiles (such as by using AI-generated headshots, made-up names, or false credentials to make content appear as if it was written by human experts) is a form of deception. Any form of deception makes a page untrustworthy to both users and our automated quality systems, and is a signal of a low-quality page.”
According to Edwards, the advertising industry should take Google’s new policy as a sign that if websites don’t disclose their use of AI-generated authors, then the publishers and their vendors risk being officially classified as “low-quality” and therefore unfit for monetization.
The DecryptAds research is a testament to how important ads.txt and sellers.json have been for spotting weak links in the programmatic chain. They’re all we have to publicly verify the relationships between publishers and ad tech vendors.