Malicious Ads in Bing Chat
Malicious ads are creeping into chatbots.
Comments
Clive Robinson • October 4, 2023 11:32 AM
@ Bruce, ALL,
“Malicious ads are creeping into chatbots.”
Firstly I’m not sure I’d use the word “creeping” it implies some form of covertness… Where as from what I’ve seen, this has been not just obvious but blatantly so.
When you consider the statment of,
“Follow the money”
It quickly becomes clear as to why it happens in such a crass way. As I’ve noted in the past a lot of money enters the top of the “On-Line Advertising Spiral” but so very very little comes out at the bottom, of the order of 0.1% or less if some figures are to be accepted.
Nobody wants to look at where the money comes from as long as it keeps on coming in big fat wads.
lurker • October 4, 2023 3:42 PM
“Malicious” ads?
Compared to print media most ads on the web are malicious, popup, scrollby, click-to-skip, not to mention (on mouse-over do bad stuff). So it was inevitable they’d turn up in the latest toys.
iAPX • October 4, 2023 5:56 PM
For the people that show you ads, you are the product, the advertiser the client. Captain obvious here!
Secondly, when you buy something after clicking on an Ad, you have to remember that you pay too much: you also pay for the ads themselves, you are part of the problem!
And having worked in the e-commerce since nearly 4 decades, as there was life and online before the Internet, I could witness that these ads are here to make you spend money don’t have for things that are useless if not futiles!
I stopped all ads and trackers on my computers with ad Blocker, my own open-source browser extension, /etc/hosts, and a Pi Hole (defence in depth).
I stopped all ads on my TV by unsubscribing from cable channels and not using an antenna, it only displays the files that I want it to display.
Ads are not malicious, they are evil. They are impoverishing people.
P Coffman • October 4, 2023 8:15 PM
The ranking thing is so annoying.
BrendaKim • October 5, 2023 10:57 PM
hi all
Subscribe to comments on this entry
Leave a comment
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
K.S. • October 4, 2023 8:01 AM
Advertising in search allows bypassing of any implemented relevance metric. The logical conclusion of this pattern frequently featured in dystopian science fiction, where only rich and powerful people had access to the information while everyone else was provided with propaganda and/or advertising.