Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The use of AI in advertisements doesn't concern me, but only because my own opinion of advertising in general couldn't be lower than it is now. If (as I often say) advertising is the original fake news, AI-generated advertising is the original fake fake news. This article reports on a couple of trends, the most notable of which is the continued use of AI to produce advertising (and where advertising and that other industry lead, content production in general is sure to follow). For me, I think the key distinction is this (and reading this story made me think of this, which is why it appears in the newsletter): AI-generated content is fine by me if I ask for it and know that's what I'm getting. But if I don't ask for it, then if it's artificially generated it doesn't feel like there's any genuine reason why I should be paying attention to it.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Jan 15, 2026 10:27 a.m.

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