The Uncomfortable Truth:
- The open web is dying: Fuelled by generative AI and the rise of the “no-click internet,” independent journalism is being bypassed before it can even publish.
- Brand safety is flawed: Current tools miss the nuance of high-risk AI-generated content while inadvertently bypassing legitimate news. The result? Budgets are actively funding polarisation.
- Agentic AI risks creating more opacity: Media buying is now automated in milliseconds by agentic AI, threatening what little visibility we have on where our money actually goes.
If independent journalism closes because AI search summaries render it obsolete, where do our audiences go? How do diverse perspectives thrive inside walled gardens where attention is the currency? And if trust in media collapses entirely, what does that leave us with in terms of actual effectiveness?
The report identifies 5 risks to advertisers and information integrity:
- Societal trust & resilience, the investment gap: AI tools already include addictive, manipulative or harmful design features that risk undermining information integrity and public trust.
- Healthy incentives, brand safety : Despite heavy reliance on AI, brand safety tools still miss nuance and harmful AI-generated content, while bypassing news, leading to adverts appearing in unsafe or polarising environments.
- Public empowerment, infrastructure instability: AI infrastructure relies on water intensive data centres, unsustainable mineral extraction and produces significant electronic waste, raising major environmental concerns highlighted by UNEP.
- Independent free and pluralistic media , the collapsing open web and media choice: Quality media outlets compete for clicks and algorithmic amplification with disinformation, influencer content, AI slop and entertainment. This has led to a reduction in content scope, quality and depth.
- Transparency & research: Agentic AI is increasingly automating media buying, raising concerns around data privacy, ad fraud and the removal of human oversight from content distribution decisions.
The report makes the case for moving information integrity from brand safety consideration to core risk management strategy. The brief outlines a clear path: object-level transparency in advertising supply chains and a shift toward Human Rights-responsible advertising.
If you would like to work with CAN on any of the AI advertiser asks outlined in the UN Issue Brief or would simply like to know more about our recommendations, please reach out to us at hello@consciousadnetwork.org
