Google will update its Google Ads Gambling and game policy, effective September 14 of this year, Gambling News reports. All accounts that would advertise in the Gambling and games category must demonstrate “good policy health.” Those that lack sufficient player protections will be banned from promoting their products on Google. Manager Accounts with repeated gambling certificate revocations will no longer be eligible. 

The Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Justice are working together in an effort to identify and prosecute leakers, says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Military Times reports. They have formed a joint task force to fight unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information to news media. “I have delegated tasking authority to the War Department’s Office of General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive all information, records, and support across the department concerning media leak investigations,” Hegseth said in a social media video.

Meta’s AI advertising tools are chaotic, generating absurdities and misrepresentations, Business Insider. reports in an article. Based on interviews with eight advertisers and agency executives, the article notes that Meta has been facing a backlash from brands. For instance, REI ran an Instagram ad depicting a bike with two handlebars. It claimed that Meta had “auto-enrolled” the firm in an AI feature that spat out an “inaccurate” and “inappropriate image. A Meta spokesperson responded that the company states in its terms of service that "AI can make mistakes and that it is the advertiser's responsibility to review the AI outputs."

Smartly, an AI-powered ad tech platform, is partnering with Roku to bring social advertising capabilities to connected TV, according to Demand Gen Report. The arrangement connects Smartly and Roku Ads Manager through the Roku Ads API. This is occurring as Smartly has formed a partnership with Wpromote x Giant Spoon, embedding its creative and media activation capabilities into the activation layer of the agency’s Polaris IQ operating system. “CTV’s performance era is here,” said Laura Desmond, CEO of Smartly. “The best advertising follows attention across every screen, and streaming is where we can now finally unlock the same proven results.”

The Massachusetts Senate has passed a bill addressing social media use by minors. But it differs from a House bill that would totally ban social media use for children under 14, the Cape Cod Times reports. The Senate bill does not ban access, nor it does include an age-verification requirement. It also allows young social media users to remain anonymous. The bill protects minors “without infringing on users' First Amendment rights, without reducing the ability of teenagers to find community online and without raising data privacy concerns,” Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem (D-Newton) said on the Senate floor.

The advertising industry is being split in two by an iceberg effect, said Ian Whitaker, a research analyst and advisor, PPC Land reports. Visible above the surface are advertisers like Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Unilever, that traditional agencies have always served. Below the surface are small and medium-sized advertisers that never engage agencies, but work directly with platforms. Roughly 40% to 45% of all global advertising spend now comes from that lower segment, and that its share is growing year-over-year, Whitaker estimated. Whitaker made his remarks during a conversation with Daniel Knapp, IAB Europe’s chief economist.

Several New York Times reporters have been subpoenaed after they reported on security concerns regarding the new Qatari-donated Air Force One, the Times reports. The subpoenas, some of which were served at the reporters’ homes, seek to force the journalists to testify before a federal grand jury in New York on Wednesday, and mark an escalation in President Trump’s efforts to intimidate independent news organizations. “The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, the top newsroom lawyer at …

Media teams have not yet reckoned with the impact of artificial intelligence on search, according to an article in Marketing Dive. Of all consumer searches, 37% are now started with AI tools instead of Google or Bing, research shows. And 60% of searches end without a click, with the users getting their answers from AI summaries. Moreover, these behaviors are accelerating. Winning in these conditions requires seeing paid search, organic SEO and AI visibility as one integrated system. 

Google is rolling out a new setting in its Search services called Search Services History, and is using the searches to train AI, Fox News reports. This includes queried files, images that were uploaded, voice searches and Search Live recordings. When turned on, the Save Media setting can allow Google to save media from Search services interactions to improve Google’s AI models and technologies.

Several media outlets, including The New York Times and the Daily News, have asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, alleging that the firm “chose obstruction” and is hiding evidence in the copyright infringement case now in discovery, U.S. News & World Report  writes. The Thursday filing argues that OpenAI is not releasing data sets and ChatGPT logs that document how it used copyrighted new content, and that it should be penalized for “discovery misconduct.”