Google has updated its Political content policy to require election advertisers to disclose use of synthetic content within ads. That means ads that contain AI-generated image, video, and audio content.

Google wrote, “In mid-November 2023, we are updating our Political content policy to require that all verified election advertisers in regions where verification is required must prominently disclose when their ads contain synthetic content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events.”

Google said that the disclosure must be “clear and conspicuous.” The disclosure “must be placed in a location where it is likely to be noticed by users.”

Any ads that contain synthetic content altered or generated in such a way that is inconsequential to the claims made in the ad will be exempt from these disclosure requirements. Google said this “includes editing techniques such as image resizing, cropping, color or brightening corrections, defect correction (for example, “red eye” removal), or background edits that do not create realistic depictions of actual events.”

Here are some examples of ad content that would require a clear and conspicuous disclosure of synthetic content:

• An ad with synthetic content that makes it appear as if a person is saying or doing something they didn’t say or do
• An ad with synthetic content that alters footage of a real event or generates a realistic portrayal of an event to depict scenes that did not actually take place

There is a lot of coverage of this on Techmeme if you want to see the more mainstream news coverage of this Google Ads policy.

Forum discussion at Twitter.