With its commitment to creating and maintaining a safer internet experience for people worldwide, Google recently reported its boosted and AI-enhanced efforts to protect everyone against malicious and misleading online ads.

The biggest of Google’s key wins was removing and blocking over 5.5 billion “bad” ads in 2023, up from 2022, an initiative optimized by the power of generative AI. Gen AI made safety enforcement easier by providing a better way to train already-existing AI systems to detect malicious ads before internet users ever see them in their browsing.

The other steps Google took were:

•Limited unfamiliar advertisers In November 2023, Google launched its new Limited Ads Serving policy, designed to protect users by limiting the reach of “unfamiliar” advertisers. It implemented a “get-to-know-you” period for advertisers who don’t yet have an established track record of good behavior, during which impressions for their ads might be limited in certain circumstances — such as when there is an unclear relationship between the advertiser and a brand they are referencing.

•Quickly adapted to new trends Toward the end of 2023 and into 2024, Google saw a targeted campaign of ads featuring the likeness of public figures to scam users, often through deepfakes. The company immediately created a dedicated team to respond, pinpointing patterns in the bad actors’ behavior, training its automated enforcement models to detect similar ads, and beginning to remove them at scale. Google also updated its misrepresentation policy to suspend accounts for bad actors.

•Prevented the use of synthetic content in election ads In 2023, Google was the first tech company to launch a new disclosure requirement for election ads containing synthetic content. It also continued to enforce its policies against misleading claims in election-related ads.

•Launched the Ads Transparency Center Last year, Google also launched the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable hub of all ads from verified advertisers. This hub helps people quickly and easily learn more about the ads they see on Search, YouTube, and Display.