YouTube ads that used artificial intelligence to fabricate customer testimonials or impersonate doctors and pharmacists to mislead consumers have been caught in large numbers. The Korea Consumer Agency said it had identified illegal ads that misused AI, including claims that an adult grew 6 centimeters taller after taking a height-growth supplement and photos doctored to show weight loss.
The Korea Consumer Agency said on the 27th that it had blocked all 420 illegal ads found through nine months of monitoring YouTube advertising from October last year through June this year. The agency operates a cooperative framework with Google, which runs YouTube, to monitor illegal ads on an ongoing basis and block them quickly.
The most common type was AI-fabricated testimonials, which accounted for 267 cases, or 63.6% of the total. Of those, 171 ads (40.7%) used composited or doctored images of physical changes, while 96 ads (22.9%) featured fake consumers giving false accounts of their experiences. Ads impersonating experts such as doctors, pharmacists and nurses totaled 153 cases (36.4%).
By product category, food accounted for 312 cases (74.3%), or about three-quarters of the total. Cosmetics followed with 72 cases (17.1%) and medical services with 21 cases (5.0%). Other categories, including massage devices, medical devices and quasi-drugs, accounted for 15 cases (3.6%).
Among illegal food ads, the largest group was consumer deception using uncertified research, claims or testimonials, with 157 cases (50.3%). False or exaggerated ads numbered 97 cases (31.1%), and ads that could mislead consumers into believing a product prevents or treats disease numbered 25 cases (8.0%). Examples included phrases such as "lose 15 kilograms without exercising" and "liver toxin cleansing."
In cosmetics, the largest group was ads that risked being mistaken for pharmaceuticals, with 42 cases (58.3%). Another 22 cases (30.6%) used expressions that went beyond the legal scope of cosmetics.
In medical service ads, one case advertised dental implant procedures for 380,000 won while recruiting 100 patients. Separately, ads for massage devices, included in the other category, used expressions such as "my pants size dropped from 38 to 32 in three weeks" and "just wearing it equals 300 abdominal crunches."
The agency stressed that businesses need to be careful, noting that revisions in May to the laws governing food labeling and advertising, cosmetics and pharmaceutical affairs will tighten rules on ads in which AI-generated fake experts recommend foods, cosmetics and other products. It also urged consumers to keep in mind that testimonials and expert endorsements they encounter on social media may be AI-composited or doctored, and to be careful not to be misled by such ads.