Google announced on July 9, 2026 that it is adding a new transparency feature across its advertising platforms that will tell users whether an ad was created or edited using generative AI. The feature, called “How this ad was made,” lives inside the My Ad Center panel accessible by tapping the three-dot menu or the info icon on any ad appearing across Google Search, YouTube, and Google Discover.
The global implementation applies to all advertisers, regardless of location. Google’s Vice President and General Manager of advertisements Privacy and Safety, Keerat Sharma, made the statement in a blog post published on the company’s official advertisements site.
Google said the move is designed to help people better understand the advertisements they encounter, while also giving advertisers clear tools to deal with an increasingly complex and regulation-driven AI transparency landscape.
The feature works differently depending on how an ad was built. When an advertiser creates or edits an ad using Google’s own generative AI advertising tools such as AI Max or Performance Max, a disclosure is added to that ad’s My Ad Center panel automatically, with no action needed from the advertiser. For ads created using AI tools outside of Google’s own ecosystem, the company is introducing a new manual control that allows advertisers to indicate whether generative AI was involved.
Google has been direct about one important limitation: it will not run independent checks to verify whether third-party AI was used. The honour system, as it currently stands, governs all external disclosures. In specific regions including the European Union, India, and New York where local regulations require it, a visible AI label can also appear directly on the ad itself, either automatically or once the advertiser activates the disclosure toggle.
“Google is adding AI disclosures to ads across Search, YouTube, and Discover. The new ‘How this ad was made’ section will appear in My Ad Center. The panel will indicate whether an ad was created or modified with AI. Rollout is global.”~Search Engine Land
A Gap in Enforcement: Why Third-Party Ads are the Weak Link?
The disclosure system has a clear structural flaw, as several analysts have already noted. Google can automatically detect and label advertising created with its own AI algorithms since it has complete control over them. However, Google has no way of independently detecting AI involvement in the enormous and growing number of ads made utilizing third-party AI platforms, such as separate image generators, AI voiceover services, and video synthesis tools. It is entirely dependent on advertising choosing to declare it.
That creates a straightforward incentive problem: an advertiser hoping that a synthetic product image passes for a genuine photograph has no reason to volunteer a disclosure, and Google has no mechanism to catch it. The Next Web described the situation bluntly, noting that “for now, Google has built the disclosure and handed advertisers the switch.
The honest ones will flip it, and the rest are exactly the reason such a label was needed.” TechCrunch confirmed independently that Google will not perform its own verification check on third-party AI claims. The practical enforcement gap is significant since AI-generated advertising is fast expanding. Google now provides tools for creating text, image, and video assets throughout its ad platform, with Gemini models fully integrated into products such as Performance Max and AI Max for Search campaigns.
As synthetic material gets more affordable and faster to produce, the possibility of consumers being mislead by AI-generated product imagery and mistaking it for real images increases in proportion. Google specifically highlighted this point, stating that transparency about media manipulation is crucial to prospective purchasers’ understanding of what they are looking at.
“Google will now disclose which ads are made with AI. When advertisers use its generative AI tools to create ads, the disclosure will be automatically enabled. If the ad is created elsewhere, the advertiser will need to use a new control to indicate if AI was involved — Google will not perform its own check.”~TechCrunch
This Builds on SynthID and 2023 Election Ad Rules:
Google’s current effort is not the company’s first attempt toward greater openness in advertising with AI. In 2023, it imposed a requirement on advertisers to declare synthetic or digitally manipulated content in election-related commercials ; this was a measure that was implemented in jurisdictions hosting major elections. The new feature applies the same transparency concept to all commercial advertising globally, a significant expansion of the policy.
Google has already embedded SynthID, an invisible digital watermark, inside content developed using its own AI tools, allowing AI-created media to be identified at a technical level even when visual labels are not present. The new My Ad Center panel extends that infrastructure to provide a more user-friendly experience.
The timing of the rollout is also closely tied to regulatory pressure. The EU AI Act’s transparency obligations for AI-generated content are set to take effect in August 2026 just weeks away. Google’s announcement front-runs those requirements, giving advertisers operating in Europe a tool to meet the incoming rules.
In the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority issued guidance in May 2025 requiring disclosure when AI could mislead consumers about the authenticity of an ad. Meta has also moved in a parallel direction, automatically labelling ads created with its own AI tools on Facebook and Instagram and requiring disclosures for third-party AI-generated ads.
“Google is adding more tools for transparency around generative AI use in advertisements. The My Ad Center panel now has a section with ‘How this ad was made’ information. It will be accessible on ads globally on Google’s Search, YouTube and Discover properties.”~Engadget
Google’s Existing Ad Policies Still Apply, Misleading Ads Remain Prohibited Regardless:
Google was clear in its announcement that the new AI disclosure feature does not replace or loosen its existing advertising policies. Misleading and deceptive ads remain prohibited under its policies whether or not AI was involved in creating them. The advertiser verification process and the existing frameworks for identifying who is behind an ad continue to apply.
What the new feature adds is a specific layer of transparency about how an ad was made, not a relaxation of the standards that govern what an ad is allowed to say or show. Google said the goal is to give consumers better information and give advertisers a straightforward path to comply with the expanding patchwork of AI transparency requirements emerging across different markets and regulatory regimes.
Until now, the absence of any commercial AI disclosure requirement from Google left advertisers and consumers in an information vacuum on this front. The “How this ad was made” section begins to address this, with the restriction that its reach is currently dependent on advertisers’ decision to be honest about it.
“Google Ads will now show if an ad was created or edited with AI across Search, YouTube and Discover. Google will automatically add a disclosure when its own AI tools are used. For external AI, it is an honour system. Google: ‘We continue to prohibit misleading and deceptive ads, whether created with AI or not.'”~Search Engine Roundtable
