Can’t Spell ‘Mania’ Without ‘AI’
We all know that AI has hit escape velocity and, oh yeah, it’s the future, etc., etc. But it’s worth taking a step back to acknowledge and appreciate how much more dramatic this shift is than other digital media and marketing manias of the past.
Take Criteo. While subscription software and mar tech stocks have been tanking recently, Criteo posted double-digit-percent growth over the past week. That’s mostly thanks to news that OpenAI has integrated Criteo as the first ad tech partner for its nascent advertising pilot program for ChatGPT.
Meanwhile, all it took was a Substack post last week to wipe out 12 digits in market value across tech and online ad platforms. What happened, exactly? Well, a market research firm called Citrini Research posted a thought experiment related to AI agents autonomously trading stocks – and everyone freaked out.
It’s just total craziness.
And nowhere is it more extreme than at the very top of the AI market. Anthropic announced a $30 billion fundraising round a month ago, which, at the time, was the biggest investment round ever, including public IPOs, having surpassed the $27 billion or so raised by Saudi Arabian firm Aramco when it went public in 2019.
Which now seems quaint, considering a few weeks later OpenAI raised $110 billion.
Patently Bad For Traffic
Google has a new patent – and it’s more bad news for publisher traffic.
But supporters like it for advertisers.
The patent is called “AI-generated content page tailored to a specific user” – which describes exactly its intent. The idea is for Google to AI-generate a personalized landing page in response to a user’s search. That dynamic page would show up in search results instead of a brand’s own page.
According to Search Engine Roundtable, the new page “might combine specific information from the organization’s site with AI-generated summaries or layouts that highlight exactly what the user was searching for.” Google would calculate a score for the current landing page based on how well it performs and meets user needs. It could generate a new one if the “existing page isn’t a perfect match.”
In theory, these tailored landing pages will help convert customers at the bottom of the funnel.
But, regardless, it’s another blow for publishers.
“If you thought AIOs angered people,” Glen Gabe, president of SEO consultancy G-Squared Interactive, posted on X, “just wait for AI-generated landing pages from Google.”
AI ≠ Authorial Intent
The US Supreme Court has decided not to hear a case about whether AI-generated content can be copyrighted, Reuters reports.
The case, Thaler v. Perlmutter, was brought by plaintiff Stephen Thaler after the US Copyright Office rejected his federal copyright registration in 2022 for a visual image that he claims was generated by his own AI system in 2018.
Most recently, the US Court of Appeals affirmed the Copyright Office’s rejection in 2025 on the grounds that human authorship is required for copyright protection. (For more on this, see the infamous Naruto v. Slater “Monkey Selfie” case.)
Now that the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case, the Court of Appeals decision stands – meaning that AI-generated content cannot legally be copyrighted, regardless of what the actual model was trained on.
Obviously, this affects any marketers already using AI-generated visual assets, but it also should give pause to those who use AI at earlier points in the creative process. too.
If you write a script for an ad and feed it into a video-generation product, the final result isn’t protected, although your script might still be. But if you let AI do all the work? You’ve got no protection at all.
But Wait! There’s More!
The agency holdcos have an AI story, but not an AI business model. [Digiday]
Meta has a plan to chase more retail media spend. [Adweek]
Hundreds of tech workers, including executives from Salesforce, OpenAI and IBM, signed an open letter urging the US Department of Defense (sorry, “Department of War”) to withdraw its designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk. [doc]
Here’s how OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance to avoid similarly being designated as a supply-chain risk. [The Verge]
Anthropic’s refusal, meanwhile, has done wonders for its App Store ranking. [The Information]
Can’t blame this on AI, at least: Amazon Web Services suffered outages over the weekend after “unidentified objects” struck a data center in the United Arab Emirates. [Bloomberg]
Investigating Clickout Media, a company that keeps buying up video game websites to fill with AI-generated casino and gambling content. [Aftermath]
You’re Hired!
Paramount nabs two more ad sales leaders for its streaming business, including Amazon vet Danielle Carney as head of US sales for Paramount Advertising. [Business Insider]
