Google Is Turning To AI To Help Identify Objectionable Content

Ed Lauder

April 4, 2017

1 Min Read

Google has announced that it's going to use AI to identify objectionable content and sell what they refer to as 'brand-safe' ads.

Google came under a lot of criticism recently when certain brands saw that their ads were being run alongside unpleasant content. Many companies, over 250 in total, boycotted Google, opting not to run their ads on YouTube and Google display. However, the Silicon Valley tech giants are trying to tackle this issue by deploying machine learning to help identify objectionable content on their platforms.

Google announced in a statement, via Business Insider, that these new machine learning tools will, "help enforce our revised policies and identify content that may be objectionable to advertisers." They also highlighted that they'll be working alongside third party partners, such as Integral Ad Science and comScore, to offer their clients brand safety reporting.

"We are working with companies that are MRC-accredited for ad verification on this initiative and will begin integrating these technologies shortly," claimed a spokesperson from Google. They also stated that they'll be reducing the review time for flagged YouTube videos, in order to ensure that advertisers can manage where their ads appear.

In an interview with Recode, Google's Chief Business Officer, Philipp Schindler, mentioned that, “it has always been a small problem,” and only “very very very small numbers” of adverts were running alongside offensive content. He also stated that, "over the last few weeks, someone has decided to put a bit more of a spotlight on the problem."

With the help their new machine learning tools, Google can now find five times more of these types of videos than before, which should put a lot of brands who were previously worried about the situation at ease.

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