“AI webpage #crawlers are now being served their very own #ads that ordinary visitors never see, with one firm's boss openly describing a strategy to influence what #chatbots say about #brands. The next time you ask Claude about where to bank, its answer may have been influenced by this #BotTargeted content.
We only have one documented example so far, and that's Time serving #AIOnly ads to selected AI crawlers, as spotted by Germany based freelance software developer #VincentSchmalbach.
In a Wednesday blog post, Schmalbach detailed how he found #sponsored content embedded in #markdown versions of some Time pages that are served to AI crawlers but not ordinary browsers. Those pages also contained #advertisings tags from #AdTech vendor Mobian ahead of extensive #FAQs for online-only bank Ally. The FAQs include brand "facts," such as the number of fee-free ATMs associated with the branchless bank, alongside claims that Ally is "the only bank built for life today," putting it in "a category of one."
AI poisoning with advertising.
#AI / #advert
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