4h ago

FTC Fines Cox Media Group For Deceptive Active Listening AI Marketing Claims

——0——
Original post
OPSimon Willison#193Simon Willison@SIMONW

I was VERY suspicious of this "active listening" story when it first started circulating. Turns out it was a scam, they weren't targeting ads by listening through microphones at all

11:17 PM · May 21, 2026 View on X
REPLYSimon Willison#193Simon Willison@SIMONW

Here's what I wrote about it back in September 2024 https://simonwillison.net/2024/Sep/2/facebook-cmg/

I think active listening is the term that the team came up with for “something that sounds fancy but really just means the way ad targeting platforms work already”. Then they got over-excited about the new metaphor and added that first couple of slides that talk about “voice data”, without really understanding how the tech works or what kind of a shitstorm that could kick off when people who DID understand technology started paying attention to their marketing.
Simon WillisonSimon Willison@simonw

I was VERY suspicious of this "active listening" story when it first started circulating. Turns out it was a scam, they weren't targeting ads by listening through microphones at all

6:17 AM · May 22, 2026 · 23.3K Views
6:18 AM · May 22, 2026 · 3.9K Views
FTC Fines Cox Media Group For Deceptive Active Listening AI Marketing Claims · Digg