Political advertisers are banned from using the AI features for ads, which include background generation and image outcropping, concerned that they may facilitate the spread of false information.

For months now, a broad range of analysts have been warning of the impending AI-generated misinformation onslaught. As this story goes to print, in fact, several campaigns already can be identified using AI-generated images in an effort to sway voters. For example, just last week, a U.S. Presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, ran an ad featuring an AI-generated image of Donald Trump hugging Anthony Fauci, and also ran an ad simulating Trump's voice.

With trends heading in an uneasy direction, Meta appended the following explanatory note to all of its Help Center articles regarding its new AI ad tools:

As we continue experimenting with new Generative AI ads creation tools in Ads Manager, we aren't allowing advertisers to run campaigns that would qualify as ads for Housing, Employment or Credit or Social Issues, Elections, or Politics, or Health, Pharmaceuticals or Financial Services, among other categories. We believe that this approach will allow us to better understand potential risks and build the right safeguards for the use of Generative AI in ads that relate to potentially sensitive topics in regulated industries.

According to Reuters, Meta's introducing the new restrictions so that it can be sure to have sufficient defenses in place against potential misuse of AI tools directly associated with paid promotions. Owner of X Elon Musk has been cautioning about the same: that the wave of generative AI looks forward to also bringing a new era for bot peddlers and misinformation, via increasingly convincing video and image examples that are becoming easier than ever to fake.

Meta has also recently added restrictions in response to recently charging users with generating pictures of public figures using its new AI assistant tools.

It's such a central concern- in any political campaign, for instance, a push on any topic can swing voters' opinions in the final days before elections. Many elections have been won and lost in the last days of a campaign, and fakes created by AI certainly look set to become a major weapon in the next stage of political manipulation, whether we like it or not.

Then comes the challenge: Many of those pushes will probably be discovered in hindsight, meaning they've probably done the intended job by the time anyone finds out.

Ideally, we can get ahead of that, which is why Meta banning use of AI in political ads makes so much sense.