Meta is running get-rich-quick ads for its AI tools

Manus, an AI company Meta acquired for $2 billion last year is running ads promising quick, easy money with AI: Find local businesses without websites or with bad websites, have AI build them one, then call them up and sell it to them. As part of the campaign, Manus was paying content creators to build out Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok accounts that promote its AI product as an easy, lucrative gig. (The creators’ TikTok accounts were taken down after The Verge inquired about them.) Some of these videos would also appear as official ads for Manus, but the posts on the paid creator accounts themselves often obscured their ties to the company. The ads were not subtle. Posted by an account called “Manus AI by Meta,” one video presented Manus’ AI agent as an “Easy side hustle” that “absolutely anybody can do” — one that supposedly “takes less than 10 minutes” and can bring in a “potential $5k a month.” The young person in the video says, “There is literally no limit.” Except, I guess, the number of businesses willing to buy an AI-generated website from a stranger on the internet. The ad did not tag the creator featured in it, but their TikTok account, which has since been removed, was filled almost entirely with Manus content. Their Instagram account , which is still live, is nearly identical. Neither disclosed any connection to Manus in its bio or posts. …