Writing in The New York Times, Kate Crawford, principal researcher at Microsoft, debates the inherent bias in artificial intelligence: "According to some prominent voices in the tech world, artificial intelligence presents a looming existential threat to humanity: Warnings by luminaries like Elon Musk and Nick Bostrom about 'the singularity' — when machines become smarter than humans — have attracted millions of dollars and spawned a multitude of conferences. But this hand-wringing is a distraction from the very real problems with artificial intelligence today, which may already be exacerbating inequality in the workplace, at home and in our legal and judicial …

At the Cannes Lions advertising festival, media companies like Gannett and AOL pitched a new vision for marketing that includes branded content and virtual reality (VR). "VR  was a popular talking point among ad agency executives, tech companies such as Samsung were demonstrating their latest hardware, and online services such as YouTube were showcasing the contentnow available on their platforms," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Salespeople and VR experts from Gannett’s USA Today Network showed a sizzle reel for its upcoming weekly VR show called “VRtually There,” as well as branded VR …

Writing on the Econsultancy blog, Stefan Tornquist, vice president of Research (U.S.) for Econsultancy, speaks with Chris O'Hara, the author of a report on "The Role of The Agency in Data Management." He finds that not only are agencies starting to build consultative practices, but it looks like traditional consultancies are starting to build agency-like services as well. "Not long ago you wouldn’t think of names like Accenture, McKinsey, Infinitive, and Boston Consulting Group when you think of digital media, but they are working closely with a lot of Fortune 500 marketers to do things like DMP and DSP (demand-side …

Marc Pritchard, global marketing and brand building officer, P&G, sat on the Economist panel at the Cannes Festival this week and said about advertising: "We've got to cut the crap and elevate the craft. Just because you 'can' doesn't mean you 'should'... there is also too much crap in content right now." Brad Jakeman, president, global beverage group, PepsiCo said "ad blocking is something we all have created. The whole industry has been lazy and has produced crap content for years. How can we be shocked that people want to block it?" Jakeman said that PepsiCo now produces much of …

Virtual reality has taken center stage at the Cannes Lions as an emerging technology even if it's at an early stage in its evolution. However, Google executives argue that broader access on smartphones could encourage mass adoption. While many people still don't know what virtual reality is, the technology allows a person wearing a customized device over their eyes to see images that appear real. "For example, a person wearing a VR device can feel as if they are in a street in Paris or flying a spaceship--without leaving their home. Media companies and advertisers are exploring how they can …

All advertising isn’t dead -- just bad advertising. That was the conclusion from Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo’s global beverage group, speaking on The Wall Street Journal panel during the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival. This year's festival comes during a particularly tough time for the ad industry, as more  consumers are using ad blockers, and marketers are concerned about how their dollars are spent by ad and media-buying agencies. In addition, publishers are producing content on behalf of brands, which agencies view as a threat to their business. So one of the biggest topics at Cannes …

Writing on the GeoMarketing.com blog, David Kaplan asks whether private marketplaces (PMPs) will spur publishers to adopt geotargeting more widely. Publishers are wary of using geo-data to target ads for fear of giving up precious first-party data and alienating their audience, but native ad specialist Blis hopes to change doubters' minds. Kaplan reports: "While online ad sales teams at major publishers have given up their collective resistance to programmatic methods and the operations of real-time ad exchanges, the adoption of geo-data to serve those RTB ads to their audience has been a bit more challenging. U.K.-based location-centric native ad platform …

The growing dominance of Google and Facebook in the online ad market has loomed over many conversations at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France this week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said the topic has come up in nearly every meeting he has taken. “It comes up with publishers, with advertising agencies, with marketers. There’s a fear of a duopoly overall,” he said in an interview Tuesday in Cannes. In fact, last year, Google and Facebook together commanded 43% of global ad revenue online, according to an estimate from research firm …

Facebook announced the launch of a new API called Audience Insights at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France. Audience Insights will combine existing demographic and psychographic data, with topical data from user posts about specific events, topics and/or brands. The data will supposedly help inform creative development. However, the Audience Insights API is only available to “select partners” between 2016 and 2017. Facebook also unveiled other products and updates designed for creatives, including a mobile ad-building interface called Creative Hub, and improvements to Canvas and Slideshow ads.

The number of Americans employing ad blockers just keeps growing. More than 25% of Internet users will block ads this year, according to eMarketer. In fact, in 2016, the digital researcher projects that 69.8 million Americans will use an ad blocker, an increase of 34.4% over 2015. In 2017, that number will grow another 24.0%, to 86.6 million people. This year, in the U.S., 26.3% of Internet users, more than one in five people, will use an ad blocker.