Good Boy, Rufus
Amazon locked in two more publishers – Condé Nast and Hearst – as data suppliers for its Rufus AI shopping agent.
Publishers are open, albeit warily, to licensing data to LLMs. Only six weeks ago, The New York Times cut a similar deal with Amazon to license data to Rufus, as Digiday notes. Many digital publishers are desperate enough to accept these types of arrangements.
But, as Brian Wieser, principal at consulting firm Madison and Wall, notes: “It’s likely better to lean into this space and learn – making some money along the way – rather than staying away with nothing gained.”
For Amazon, the archives of Condé Nast and Hearst, not to mention the Times (with its Cooking vertical and Wirecutter), create a massive pool of shopping and intent data related to household goods, groceries, clothing and more.
Publishers get annual revenue commitments, but it’s also important for bigger pubs to cut these deals in order to establish the market. The NYT’s suit against OpenAI, for instance, is strengthened by the precedent of LLMs paying publishers to license data and content.
Just Browsing
Earlier this week, Perplexity introduced its new web browser, called Comet, which, it should be noted, is not actually available yet.
Not to be outdone, OpenAI is also totally going to launch its own web browser, Reuters reports. Its version would, of course, natively integrate with ChatGPT and OpenAI’s other agentic products, such as Operator.
The problem for AI-powered web search tools like Perplexity and OpenAI is that, push comes to shove, they’re just sites and apps. They don’t possess myriad personal touch points and are often bound by other platforms’ rules. Google and Apple, by contrast, sit atop their own operating systems, email inboxes, devices and web browsers.
It’s a control thing. That’s why The Trade Desk is willing to put so much time and energy into its TV operating system, Ventura, a near-zero revenue generator with no easy growth. It’s also why Meta wants so badly to ship ubiquitous VR devices before Apple does.
These companies know better than anyone the fundamental power imbalance between the OS-device-browser operators and the apps and sites built on their infrastructure – so they’re willing to do the hard slog for a fraction of a percent of the market.
Relatedly, last week, OpenAI closed its $6.5 billion acquisition of hardware startup io, founded by Jony Ive, Apple’s former design guru. OpenAI plans to also launch a new device at an unspecified future date.
Real Eyes Realize Real AIs
Platforms often can’t differentiate between AI-generated and human content. Sometimes, they just get confused.
“AI-generated” labels have been incorrectly applied to TikTok star Nikolai Savic’s videos, for example, which feature stark visual transitions – all real, albeit occasionally edited with AI tools.
“This hurt my reputation so much,” he tells The Wall Street Journal. “And at TikTok, nobody really seems to care.”
Why? Social platforms are too busy scrambling to moderate (and also encourage) the profligation of AI-generated photos and videos.
In 2023, TikTok developed a tool to detect and label AI-generated content, along with providing creators with a button to disclose their use of AI tools. Meta followed suit, with a way for creators to distinguish between when their content was created with AI vs. modified by AI tools.
Although some platforms, including YouTube, allow AI-generated ads to run without disclosures, most brands have contracts with creators that “prohibit the use of generative AI to avoid losing fans’ trust,” says Dana Neujahr, managing director at creative agency We Are Social.
It’s a tricky balance to strike, when trust seems to be what users want most from the creators they follow at the same time AI is getting better and more ubiquitous.
But Wait! There’s More
Disney and UK network ITV strike a deal to share content across each company’s streaming service. [Variety]
Amazon’s decision to extend Prime Day from two days to four was a risk – and it might not pay off. [Bloomberg]
You’re Hired!
WPP selects Microsoft leader Cindy Rose as its new CEO to succeed Mark Read. [Axios]
Samsung Ads promotes Lauren Barnett to head of UK sales. [release]
Snap taps Reddit exec Mary Ann Belliveau to helm North America ad sales. [Adweek]
Apple vet Megan Imbres is the new CMO of Peloton. [Adweek]
