AI ramps up April Fools risks [Video]

Rebranding as “Voltswagen.” Shutting down Trader Joe’s. Emailing confirmation of a $750 food delivery.

The range of April Fools’ Day marketing pranks gone awry is as varied as their reception. Met with everything from smiles and social media shares to confusion, derision or even fury and falling stocks, the puckish promotional tactic represents a risk that can endear customers to a brand as swiftly as it can sour them on it.

“One person’s humour is another person’s offense,” said Vivek Astvansh, a marketing professor at McGill University.

As April 1 approaches, consumers would be wise to extend even more skepticism, with experts saying artificial intelligence ramps up the potential for high-tech promotional ploys. Whether through generative text-to-video tools that conjure rich scenes from dashed-off instructions or chatbots that serve up endless ad ideas on command, AI raises new questions of authenticity and could make distinguishing between jokes, facts and deepfakes …