品牌喜歡網紅…直到政治介入

Brands love when social media stars take to Instagram or TikTok to advertise their soap, probiotic sodas, makeup and more. But many of those same brands are eager to avoid influencers who discuss politics.

許多品牌喜歡社群媒體明星用Instagram或TikTok來為他們的肥皂、益生菌蘇打水、化妝品等打廣告。但這些品牌當中，許多也亟欲避開討論政治的網紅。

Making sure the two don’t mix has become a fraught exercise in the growing, and often unpredictable, influencer industry.

確保兩者不會混在一起，在不斷增長且通常不可預測的網紅產業中，已成為一種充滿挑戰的任務。

With the presidential election looming, some marketing agencies have started to pitch advertisers on new tools that grade the so-called brand safety of social media personalities. Some of the tools even use artificial intelligence to predict the likelihood that a particular influencer will discuss politics in the future.

隨著總統選舉即將到來，一些行銷公司已著手向廣告主推銷新工具，將所謂社群媒體名人的品牌安全分級。這類工具中，有些甚至使用人工智慧，預測一名特定網紅未來討論政治的可能性。

A tool recently introduced by Captiv8, a marketing firm that helps advertisers such as Walmart and Kraft Heinz connect with influencers, uses AI to analyze mentions of social media stars in online articles and then determines whether they are likely to discuss elections or “political hot topics.” The firm also assigns letter grades to creators based on their posts, comments and media coverage, where an “A” means very safe and a “C” signals caution. The grades incorporate categories such as “sensitive social issues,” death and war, hate speech or explicit content.

幫助沃爾瑪與卡夫亨氏等廣告主與網紅聯繫的行銷公司Captiv8，最近推出一種工具，利用AI分析線上文章中提到的社群媒體明星，然後判定他們是否有可能討論選舉或「政治熱門話題」。這間公司也以創作者的發文、評論與媒體報導為基礎，用字母幫他們評級，「A」意味非常安全，而「C」表示要小心。該評級包含「敏感社會議題」、死亡與戰爭、仇恨言論或露骨內容等類別。

Viral Nation, another influencer agency, also offers marketers a product that makes “risk profiles” for creators. The tool, which the company has been using for more than year, assesses years of posts — including hours of dialogue from videos — and can detect whether people are holding weapons or protest signs in their content, even if those elements aren’t mentioned in captions or audio.

另一家網紅經紀公司Viral Nation也向行銷業者提供一種產品，為創作者製作「風險概況」。該公司一年多來一直在使用的這個工具，可評估多年的發文，包括影像中的數小時對話，並可查出人們是否在他們發表的內容中持有武器或抗議標語，哪怕這些要素沒在標題或音訊提到。

“Brands are definitely asking for this,” Krishna Subramanian, a founder of Captiv8, said. “We noticed from the election before, people wanted to know — have creators talked about the election and talked about the president? Because they don’t want to be in that conversation.”

Captiv8一位創辦人蘇布拉曼尼安表示，「品牌當然正在要求這個」。他說，「我們從上一場選舉注意到，人們想知道創作者有談過這場選舉跟這位總統嗎？因為他們不想參與這種對話」。

The way marketers gauge suitability online directs billions of dollars in spending and helps shape discourse on the internet. After many major brands faced consumer boycotts during Donald Trump’s presidency for inadvertently running digital ads alongside conspiracy theories and terrorist propaganda, companies created new industry guidelines to help them avoid funding harmful content on social media. Since then, many advertisers have also stopped running messages in news outlets in the name of brand safety.

行銷業者判斷線上適合性的方式，引導數十億美元的支出，並協助形塑網路上的論述。許多大品牌在川普的總統任期內，因無意中在陰謀論與恐怖分子宣傳旁邊投放數位廣告，而面臨消費者抵制，多家公司隨後制定新的行業規範，協助他們避免資助社群媒體上的有害內容。此後，許多廣告主也以品牌安全的名義，停止在新聞機構投放訊息。

Some conservatives say the industrywide definitions have unfairly dinged right-wing sites.

一些保守派表示，整個產業的定義已不公平地損害右翼網站。

AI掛帥的競選年？事實並非如此

Matthew Diemer, a Democrat running for election in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, was approached in January with a pitch by artificial intelligence company Civox: AI-backed voice technology that could make tens of thousands of personalized phone calls to voters using Diemer’s talking points and sense of humor.

美國民主黨人迪默爾在俄亥俄州第七國會選區競選，今年1月接到人工智慧公司Civox的推銷：人工智慧支援的語音科技，可以使用迪默爾的論點和幽默感，撥打數萬通個人化電話給選民。

His campaign agreed to try out the technology. But it turned out that the only thing voters hated more than a robocall was an AI-backed one.

他的競選團隊同意嘗試這項科技。但結果是，相較於自動語音電話，選民更討厭人工智慧支援的這類電話。

While Civox’s AI program made almost 1,000 calls to voters in five minutes, nearly all of them hung up in the first few seconds when they heard a voice that described itself as an AI volunteer, Diemer said.

迪默爾說，儘管Civox的人工智慧程式五分鐘內打給近千名選民，但他們聽到自稱是人工智慧志工的聲音時，幾乎所有人都在剛開始幾秒就掛電話。

“People just didn’t want to be on the phone, and they especially didn’t want to be on the phone when they heard they were talking to an AI program,” said the entrepreneur, who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for the same seat he is seeking now. “Maybe people weren’t ready yet for this type of technology.”

這名企業家2022年競選和現在一樣的國會席次，但沒有成功。他說：「人們就是不想通話，他們聽到自己和人工智慧程式交談時，特別不想通話。或許人們還沒準備好接受這種科技。」

This was supposed to be the year of the AI election. Fueled by a proliferation of AI tools such as chatbots and image generators, more than 30 tech companies have offered AI products to national, state and local U.S. political campaigns in recent months. The companies — mostly smaller firms such as BHuman, VoterVoice and Poll the People — make products that reorganize voter rolls and campaign emails, expand robocalls and create AI-generated likenesses of candidates that can meet and greet constituents virtually.

今年本應是人工智慧選舉年。在聊天機器人和影像生成器等人工智慧工具激增的推動下，超過30間科技公司近幾個月已提供人工智慧產品給國家級、州級和地方層級美國政治競選團隊。這些公司大多是BHuman、VoterVoice和Poll the People這類規模較小的公司，他們製造的產品能重組選民名冊和競選電郵、擴大自動語音電話，以及創建人工智慧生成候選人肖像，可和選民以虛擬形式打招呼。

But campaigns are largely not biting — and when they have, the technology has fallen flat. Only a handful of candidates are using AI, and even fewer are willing to admit it, according to interviews with 23 tech companies and seven political campaigns. Three of the companies said campaigns agreed to buy their tech only if they could ensure the public would never find out they had used AI.

但競選團隊大多不願採用，而且即使他們用了，這些科技也未達到預期效果。與23間科技公司和7個政治競選團隊的訪談顯示，僅少數候選人使用人工智慧，願意承認的更少。其中3間公司表示，競選團隊只有在確保公眾不會發現使用人工智慧的狀況下，才願意購買他們的科技。

“Political campaigns have trust issues to begin with,” said Phillip Walzak, a political consultant in New York. “No candidate wants to be accused of posting deepfakes in the election or using A.I. in a way that deceives voters.”

紐約一名政治顧問沃爾札克表示：「政治競選一開始就存在信任議題。沒有候選人希望自己在選舉期間被指控發布深偽或使用人工智慧欺騙選民。」

Diemer said he didn’t regret experimenting with AI.

迪默爾表示，他不後悔試用人工智慧。

“I love AI and tech and what it could potentially do to make political campaigns more affordable and accessible for everyone,” he said. “I don’t think everyone got what we were trying to do, or gave it a chance to see that maybe, AI was a great tool in reaching voters.”

他說：「我愛人工智慧和科技，以及它有可能讓競選更負擔得起，讓每個人更容易參與。我不認為每個人都明白我們嘗試做的事，或者給它一個機會，去看看人工智慧或許是觸及選民的好工具。」