In this episode of the MadTech Podcast, head of marketing Grainne Reid is joined by head of content John Still and Simi Gill, head of digital at The Kite Factory, to discuss the latest in media and marketing. 

They examine Elon Musk’s plans to bring ads to Grok, Google denying that AI Overviews is killing website traffic, and lawmakers urging Meta to shut down its new Instagram Map. 

This week's stories:

Elon Musk to introduce ads to X’s AI chatbot (FT) 

Elon Musk plans to introduce advertising into the answers of X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok. Musk said X would allow marketers to pay to appear in the chatbot’s suggestions. Many advertisers are still steering clear from X, following the content moderation issues the platform has seen over the past few years. 

Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic (TechCrunch) 

Google has again claimed that its new AI-powered Search feature, AI Overviews, is not killing website traffic for publishers’ websites. In a blog post, Liz Reid, Google’s VP, head of Search, wrote: “Overall, total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year. Additionally, average click quality has increased and we’re actually sending slightly more quality clicks to websites than a year ago.” 

This contrasts many studies which have reported traffic decreasing for publishers since AI Overviews were introduced. 

Lawmakers urge Meta to shut down Instagram Map (Axios) 

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the US are urging Meta to shut down Instagram's new map feature, calling it a risk to child safety. The platform has launched a map which shares users’ location within direct messages, letting other users see where geotagged content has been posted. The feature can be turned off by users. Lawmakers warn that location-sharing can expose minors to predators.