Guidelines on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools for Advertising Materials and Promotional Content

Guidelines on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools for Advertising Materials and Promotional Content

Updated : October 2024

Preamble

The emergence of open-source generative artificial intelligence capable of creating texts, images, photos, and videos on demand represents a transformative technological advancement and offers enormous potential for media and advertisers. However, it also raises several ethical issues for them and for society in general.

These guidelines aim to regulate the use of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertising materials and promotional content, in a context where there is a risk of disseminating advertisements and promotional content to readers that do not meet La Presse’s standards and advertising norms.

These guidelines come into force immediately upon their publication and will be regularly reviewed and updated as generative artificial intelligence tools and our thinking about them evolve.

The guidelines governing advertising are distinct from the guidelines concerning journalistic content on our platforms. These guidelines are available here (in French only).

Overview

These guidelines outline certain authorized uses of generative AI tools for advertising materials and promotional content;
It is mandatory to validate any other planned use of generative AI tools with La Presse’s sales management, who will refer to La Presse’s legal department if necessary;
It is prohibited to use external generative AI tools to produce advertising materials or promotional content without authorization from the sales management;
It is mandatory to review and validate any result obtained from a generative AI tool before using it for publication and distribution purposes;
It is mandatory to disclose to readers any use of generative AI tools in the creation of advertising materials or promotional content intended for publication;
La Presse encourages sales department employees, freelancers, collaborators, and advertisers to stay informed about developments in generative AI tools and to reflect on the ethical issues they raise.

Scope of Application

These guidelines apply to all members of La Presse’s sales department staff, as well as to freelancers, collaborators, and advertisers with whom they do business.

The term “advertising material” refers to advertisements provided by advertisers for distribution within our ecosystem, as well as advertisements produced by sales department employees.

The term “promotional content” refers to branded content and promotional content produced for advertisers by sales department employees. All such content bears the XTRA label.

Context

Various generative AI tools are prone to, among other things, producing and disseminating false information, defamatory information, or information that infringes on privacy rights, as well as content that violates third-party copyrights.

Generative AI thus poses legal and reputational risks for La Presse and advertisers, as its use without appropriate precautions and safeguards can lead to legal liability, undermine credibility, and affect the public’s trust in them.

Aware that it is futile, even counterproductive, to oppose technological advances, La Presse wishes to encourage its employees, freelancers, collaborators, and advertisers to explore the numerous possibilities offered by external generative AI tools, while adopting a cautious approach to their use due to the potential dangers of these new technologies.

Therefore, any use of external generative AI tools by sales department employees, freelancers, collaborators, or advertisers that is not already authorized by these guidelines must first be approved by La Presse’s sales management and must be disclosed to them.

The Search for Truth and AI

Although advertising material and promotional content are distinct from editorial content, they remain subject to the obligation of seeking truth. It is therefore crucial to adopt a skeptical attitude towards any information gathered from a generative AI source and to independently verify and confirm the validity of this information before using it. As mentioned before, AI tools are likely to convey false, inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete information, hence the importance of performing all necessary verifications and obtaining all necessary corroborations before using information obtained from generative AI.

Knowledge of Subjects Covered and AI

Promotional writers and advertising designers must ensure they have a good understanding of the subjects they are called upon to address. For this reason, it is forbidden to rely on summaries of documents produced by external generative AI tools as a source of information without reviewing the full documents.

Honesty and AI

It is essential to be transparent with readers when publishing material produced in whole or in part with generative AI, in order to preserve the integrity and reputation of La Presse and its advertisers, as well as the bond of trust with readers. Publishing content produced by external generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Bard, Midjourney or Dall-E, without disclosing the source is a form of plagiarism and constitutes deception towards La Presse’s readers. For these reasons, it is mandatory to disclose to La Presse’s readers the use of external generative AI tools if they are used to create advertising material or promotional content intended for publication.

External Advertising Material

Advertising material and promotional content designed externally and provided to La Presse for publication on its platforms are subject to the same standards as those applicable to advertising material and promotional content created by La Presse.

Freelancers and advertisers or their representatives must ensure that the creative material submitted for production or their advertisements and promotional content submitted for publication in La Presse comply with these guidelines.

La Presse will take reasonable measures to verify this compliance. However, as of the date of publication of these guidelines, La Presse does not have technological means to control advertisers’ adherence to these guidelines and will therefore have to rely on their good faith.

Authorized Uses

AI should be used as a tool to assist sales department employees, freelancers, collaborators, and advertisers, not as a way to replace them. Therefore, La Presse prohibits sales department employees, freelancers, collaborators, and advertisers from using external generative AI tools to produce texts intended for publication or to edit them without prior authorization from the sales management. It is also forbidden to use external generative AI tools to produce photos, videos, or images that depict identifiable places, individuals, or events.

For reference, here are some uses of AI tools that are currently authorized for promotional content (XTRA) without the need to obtain additional authorization:

Conduct research to obtain information on the underlying context of a given subject upstream of the promotional material production process (similar to Wikipedia);
Translation of texts or quotes in a foreign language, using reliable translation applications;
Brainstorming for text topics and promotional content ideas;
Brainstorming for text titles;
Brainstorming for the wording of captions and legends;
Preparation of summaries of already published texts from La Presse;
Simple photo retouching.

For reference, here are some uses of AI tools that are currently authorized for advertising material without the need to obtain additional authorization:

Translation of texts or quotes in a foreign language, using reliable translation applications;
Brainstorming for advertising concept ideas;
Brainstorming for advertising texts, statements, and calls to action;
Photo retouching;
Generation of simple icons and vector elements.

The aforementioned uses do not constitute an exhaustive list of what is authorized by La Presse. However, it is mandatory to validate any other planned use of generative AI with La Presse’s sales management and, if necessary, with the legal department.

Modification of These Guidelines

Given the lightning-fast pace of technological advancements in artificial intelligence, these guidelines are necessarily destined to be modified in the future. La Presse also encourages sales department employees to stay informed about developments in generative AI tools, to reflect on the ethical issues they raise, and to share their thoughts in this regard with their colleagues and sales management.