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By Weston Blasi

Google and YouTube policy update states that political ads using AI to change voices or images must include a prominent disclosure

Google and YouTube have created new rules ahead of the 2024 election cycle for political advertisements that use artificial intelligence to alter imagery or voices.

Beginning in November, said Alphabet (GOOGL)(GOOGL), parent to Google and YouTube, all AI or synthetic content used in political ads must be prominently disclosed on the ad itself.

"This disclosure must be clear and conspicuous, and must be placed in a location where it is likely to be noticed by users," Google's new content policy update states. "This policy will apply to image, video, and audio content."

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Though digitally created images, videos or audio clips are not new to political advertising, generative AI tools are making it even easier to do, and this digitally produced content is more realistic looking. At least one Republican presidential bid -- that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis -- is already leveraging the technology.

In June, a pro-DeSantis super PAC shared an attack ad against 2024 primary opponent Donald Trump, the former president and current GOP frontrunner, that used AI to generate false images showing the former president hugging the noted, and vilified on the political right, infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci.

The Republican National Committee in April released an entirely AI-generated ad meant to show a version of the U.S.'s future if President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is re-elected. The AI-generated ad employed fake but realistic-looking photos showing boarded-up storefronts, armored military patrols in the streets and waves of immigrants creating panic.

There are some exceptions to Google's AI disclosure requirement, including circumstances when AI use is "inconsequential" to the ad's claims. Examples of those, according to Google, would be editing techniques using AI to remove "red eye" or to crop images.

To be clear, Google is not banning ads that use AI or synthetic content; it's only requiring that the verified election advertisers disclose use of AI in their ads. Google did not publicly detail any penalties for advertisers who do not follow its guidelines in its policy update.

Google was not immediately available for comment.

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Google is not the first technology company to create guidelines for AI on its platform. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta (META) in 2020 announced a general ban on "misleading manipulated media," including so-called deepfakes, although that rule is for all users, not just political ads.

The new announcement from Google comes as the tech giant has reached a settlement in a long-running antitrust case with 36 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., over claims it had an app-store monopoly. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and the agreement is subject to approval by the states' attorneys general and Alphabet's board of directors.

The Associated Press contributed.

-Weston Blasi

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-08-23 1417ET

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