Meta’s Advertising AI Gets an Intervention

Meet the Grand Poobah Oversight Chatbot

AI often reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz where the terrifying projection of the wizard hides a weak old man. Photo from Screen Rant

Poobah: It’s come to my attention that your advertising AI is simply not doing its job. Users mark ads as irrelevant over and over again, and yet you continue to show them similar ads. Do you not know the definition of “irrelevant”?

Metabot: you are not understanding that when we ask users to define their interests, we lead them to believe there are only 50 categories. But in (our) reality there are thousands of categories. Just because a user tells us that an an for remodeling a living room is irrelevant, that doesn’t mean that an ad for remodeling a bedroom is, too! So what if they don’t have a lawn or patio — they might be interested in an ad for resodding or patio furniture. You just never know.

Poobah: By what intelligence do you think that an advertiser should want to pay to show ads relevant to homeowners to people who rent?

Metabot: For a supposed super-intelligence, you’re misunderstanding how this works. We don’t care if advertisers pay but don’t reach relevant audiences. Only that they pay. Even better if the user accidentally misses the tap zone to express disinterest, because that means we get to charge the advertiser even more for an interaction.