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> and an endless pressure for Google themselves to squeeze every ounce of return they out of search results I'm not exactly sure if people are seeing some kind
by danShumway 4y ago
> and an endless pressure for Google themselves to squeeze every ounce of return they out of search results
I'm not exactly sure if people are seeing some kind of implication in this comment that I'm not seeing that's prompting downvotes, but I agree, there is an incredibly high likelihood that some company somewhere is currently working on inserting advertising into LLM prompts.
I don't have horribly strong opinions here, but my suspicion is that advertising around LLM output is going to be difficult unless those ads go native, in which case the obvious way to monetize an LLM summary with ads is going to be to get that LLM to offhandedly mention during its summary that you should be drinking a Coke.
Or more likely, that when you ask Google Bard how to install a hard drive, it generates an answer that involves you buying a sponsored screwdriver as part of its tutorial. So yeah, if that happens, you are going to have to personally interpret the LLM output through the lens of "how has the company biased this answer to get me to spend money?"
Again, I don't feel as strong about this prediction as I do about the security angle, but... unless people think normal consumers outside of the tech industry are going to suddenly start paying money for search access, advertising is going to start popping up in some form. And the trend with normal search has been getting those ads to be treated more and more inline with the rest of the search results. I kind of suspect LLM-based search will go the same way.
- AnthonyMouse 4y agoThis goes past product placement. Suppose you use LLM output to poison the next round of training. Generate a large volume of content describing your products as the best or only option and denigrating the competition as unreliable overpriced crap etc., then let that get absorbed into the next model. It even goes beyond product marketing. Apply the same mechanism to political propaganda.
- Espressosaurus 4y agoGiven how easy it is I can't believe that process hasn't already started
- jruohonen 4y agoIt has already started, as has been documented also on this site.
- avereveard 4y agoWell you cannot filter every product placement, users may want to ask about product recommendations and providing only generic answers is frustrating. I know because I was trying to use gpt to pick a monitor earlier this year. Ended up consuming dozen hours content from YouTube instead of having a single well curated answer.
- modeless 4y agoDoesn't Bing Chat already have ads?
- danShumway 4y agoGood catch! Apparently yes, and has had them for a while: https://old.reddit.com/r/bing/comments/12v56nv/bing_ai_now_add_ads_to_the_sites_it_links_to/ https://old.reddit.com/r/bing/comments/12v56nv/bing_ai_now_a..., https://old.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/11cnc73/not_only_did_it_give_me_the_wrong_info_the_first/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/11cnc73/not_only_d... I remember seeing an article about Microsoft introducing ads into Bing Chat, but I kind of assumed they would just be sidebar ads. It's a little bit validating but a lot more upsetting to see that no, they're already inline.
- joe_the_user 4y agoWell, we don't if these ads come from the bot itself or just get added by key word afterwards. And it occurs to me that another step down the road is when the company offers an AI chatbot interface to it's advertisers so they can fine-tune where the AI will switch to trying to sell their product and how.
- ehnto 4y agoI think AI generated content spam will be an issue that poisions LLM search quite quickly. SEO spam is a race to the bottom, they don't care if they ruin the places the are posting spam. If LLMs can generate spam undetectable as generated, you will have millions of reviews, comments, blogs etc subtly promoting products and that then getting sucked up into the LLM search's model.
- radarsat1 4y ago> there is an incredibly high likelihood that some company somewhere is currently working on inserting advertising into LLM prompts. If there wasn't before this comment, there sure is now ;)
- pmoriarty 4y agoSuch trends are going to be combated by AI ad filters.
- joe_the_user 4y agoIndeed, and they'll be abetted by anti-filter AIs. We're going to be looking at "semantic wars" or something.