From an advertisement for an herbal remedy that promises to cure all to a video featuring a voice that sounds just like a movie star, you’ve surely encountered spam and scam advertisements online. And they have likely been created with artificial intelligence.
The accessibility of generative AI tools has exacerbated the perennial issue of online spam and scams that’s persisted since the advent of the internet. And while creators of such content have access to this ever-evolving technology, tech giants are also honing their internal AI systems to fight the deluge.
“It's not that this is a new problem. It is an old problem, supercharged,” said Nate Elliott, a principal analyst at Emarketer. “The biggest difference is the speed and the scale that AI offers both the good actors and the bad actors.”
