Advertising in AI systems: Society must be vigilant

AI systems have increasingly become our gateways to the Internet. We argue that just as advertising has driven the monetization of web search and social media, so too will commercial incentives shape the content served by AI. Unlike traditional media, however, the outputs of these systems are dynamic, personalized, and lack clear provenance -- raising concerns for transparency and regulation. In this paper, we envision how commercial content could be delivered through generative AI-based systems. Based on the requirements of key stakeholders -- advertisers, consumers, and platforms -- we propose design principles for commercially-influenced AI systems. We then outline high-level strategies for end users to identify and mitigate commercial biases from model outputs. Finally, we conclude with open questions and a call to action towards these goals.

@article{wu2025_2505.18425,
  title={ Advertising in AI systems: Society must be vigilant },
  author={ Menghua Wu and Yujia Bao },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.18425},
  year={ 2025 }
}