Google keeps approving deceptive YouTube ads even as Gemini appears able to flag the same ads as policy violations

The author says a misleading YouTube ad was repeatedly reported to Google, but reviewers responded that it did not violate ad policies. When shown the same ad, Google’s Gemini reportedly identified it as misrepresentation and recommended disapproval, raising questions about why Google is not using its own AI more effectively in ad review.

The incident highlights a growing gap between platform trust-and-safety promises and real-world enforcement at ad scale. If AI systems can reliably detect deceptive ads, pressure will rise on Google and other platforms to deploy them more aggressively, especially where bad ads generate revenue through high click-through rates.