So Pennsylvania is cracking down on deceptive AI advertising. A new law, coming within the next 60 days, would make advertisers tell you when an image was made with artificial intelligence. Fair enough. Except, hold on a second.
Have you ever actually seen the burger from the ad show up on your tray? No. You have not. You saw the one built by a food stylist with tweezers and dyes and lighting tricks, a burger engineered to make you hungry, not a burger anyone was ever going to eat.
That is the part that gets me. We have been sold picture perfect food for decades. And it does not stop at burgers. I run through the old subliminal tricks too, including an ad that looks like a photograph and turns out to be a hand drawn painting with a message slipped inside it. Old school deception. No AI required.
Now politicians want a little disclaimer line at the bottom of AI ads. Will that change anything? Consumers have watched CGI in movies for years and never blinked. Do you really think they are going to care how an ad was made, as long as it looks good?
And here is the kicker. The same politicians worried about doctored images, go look at their own campaign profile pictures. How many filters do you think are on those? (A filter or six, if we are being honest.)
So what do you think? Should Pennsylvania’s AI disclosure rule spread across the country, or is this a case of blaming the newest tool for the oldest trick in advertising? Drop your take in the comments. Marc wants to hear it.
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