Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Unboxed
The Chrome Privacy Sandbox is sorta-kinda-finally ramping up to testable scale. And Google is signaling more clearly that the training wheels are almost ready to come off.
Chrome 115 went live for Android on Wednesday and will be available to all users over the next week.
This is big news because Chrome 115 greatly expands the pool of people who are potentially reachable via Privacy Sandbox products, such as the Topics API and the Attribution Reporting API.
And there’s also movement in other quarters.
The IAB Tech Lab just released a new VAST feature, which was developed with participation from Google, so a publisher’s video ads will sync with the Chrome Attribution Reporting API once it’s available.
The Google Ads team also recently published its own tests with the Chrome Privacy Sandbox and is advocating for adoption. (There’s an awkward dance occurring as Google Ads pretends that it’s like any other third-party ad tech that’s evaluating the Privacy Sandbox – as if they’re not in the same office with the Chrome folks.)
Resistance Is Futile
News publishers are fighting back against having their content repurposed by generative AI. But the Associated Press seems to be taking a different tack: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
The AP has brokered a two-year agreement with OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, Axios reports, which will give OpenAI access to AP reporting going back to 1985 for training the company’s machine learning models. In exchange, AP gets access to OpenAI’s product experts and generative tech for its own purposes.
Notably absent, however, is any mention of payment other than access to tech and expertise that otherwise may not be available.
The agreement doesn’t mean the AP will start churning out AI-generated content, but it does allow for the exploration of further ChatGPT integrations down the road.
Besides, AI is nothing new for the AP. It’s used machine-generated content to cover corporate earnings reports and some sports for years. This year, AP rolled out an AI-enabled search tool for reporters to find images and video using descriptive queries rather than metadata.
Can You FTC Over The Horizon?
The FTC has taken a browbeating lately.
It’s now lost a string of digital media merger cases, from the AT&T-Time Warner challenge during former president Donald Trump’s term to Facebook’s relatively minor acquisition of VR developer Within. More recently, the FTC lost its bid to block Microsoft’s deal for Activision Blizzard.
The FTC doesn’t lose cases often. Most merger oppositions brought by the agency don’t go to court because its historical win rate is very high. They settle out of court.
Ben Thompson at Stratechery, not a mincer of words, says the FTC’s rationales for antitrust merger suits have been “so knee jerk and so poorly argued, that it’s very possible that big companies will in fact be emboldened.”
Then there’s the bouncing ball.
By centering its opposition to the Microsoft-Activision deal on whether games like Call of Duty are available on other consoles and platforms, Mike Shields writes, the FTC could open the door for Microsoft to multiply its investment by another route: dramatically increasing advertising in video games.
Xbox subscriber accounts are part of the Microsoft Advertising identity graph. Just BTW.
But Wait, There’s More!
TikTok and gaming: How it plans to compete with YouTube and Twitch. [Ad Age]
There’s another unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update creating volatility in search tools. [Search Engine Roundtable]
Disney boss Bob Iger commits to Hulu, but doesn’t discount possibly selling the company’s linear TV nets. [CNBC]
The next frontier in retail media is audiences. [Adweek]
You’re Hired!
IRIS.TV promotes Rohan Castelino to CMO and names Jim Heinzen as its VP of finance and operations. [release]
Roblox promotes Christina Wootton to chief partnerships officer. [PocketGamer.biz]
