# AI Ads, Scams, and Search: Tech Shifts

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-04-29

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
YouTube is testing an AI-powered search feature.
I'm Imran Shaikh and your Wednesday Daily Crunch featuring three big tech headlines starts right now.
Americans lost $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, according to a new report from the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission, the FTC.
The agency reports that losses from social media scams have increased eightfold and that social media scams resulted in higher losses than any other method scammers use to contact consumers.
Nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to scams said the schemes began on social media.
More people reported losing money to scams that originated on Facebook than any other social media platform, with WhatsApp and Instagram ranking a distant second and third.
Additionally, people reported losing far more money to scams on Facebook alone than they reported losing to text or email scams.
The FTC's data shows that social media scams take many forms, including shopping scams, which were the most reported type of social media scam last year.
Over 40% of people who lost money to social media scams said they ordered an item they saw in an ad, ranging from clothing and cosmetics to car parts and even puppies.
Many of these ads led to unfamiliar websites, while others sent people to fake sites for well-known brands that claimed to offer big discounts.
Another common type of social media scam involves investment schemes that begin with ads or posts offering to teach people how to invest.
Find the rest of this story right now at TechCrunch.com.
Snapchat announced on Tuesday that it's rolling out AI-sponsored snaps, which will allow users to interact directly with brands' AI agents.
Sponsored snaps are the ads placed directly into the app's main chat tab.
Until now, users couldn't interact with these ads, but with the launch of AI-sponsored ads, they'll be able to do things like ask questions and get recommendations.
Of course, not everyone will be on board with AI-sponsored ads as they introduce AI to yet another part of the Snapchat experience.
Plus, not everyone's eager for more advanced advertising.
However, Snapchat said in a blog post that its community isn't just open to AI in conversation.
They're already embracing it, given that over half a billion users have messaged its AI chatbot since it launched in 2023.
For brands, the new AI-sponsored Snaps give them access to Snapchat's nearly 1 billion monthly active users.
They can bring their own AI agents onto the platform to drive engagement and purchases.
Snapchat says the new format builds on the momentum of sponsored Snaps, which already drive 22% more conversions with nearly 20% lower cost per action.
With the new format, they can engage users through personalized AI-powered interactions right where they're already having conversations.
Users often search for recipes and travel plans on YouTube to find videos related to their queries, while now the video platform will offer a new tool to cater to those users' needs with its introduction of an AI-powered interactive search feature that presents step-by-step results along with a mix of both text and video.
Through this new Ask YouTube feature, users can ask questions like plan a three-day road trip from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and get step-by-step results, which would be a mix of text, short videos, and longer videos instead of just video results.
The company says it'll show videos and relevant video segments with titles and channel details to help users discover new creators.
In addition, users can ask follow-up questions like where can I get good coffee and get suggestions in a similar style.
The feature is available to premium subscribers in the U.S.
who are aged 18 or older.
Interested users will need to opt into this experiment through a URL that you can find at TechCrunch.com.
Google noted that it's working on making this feature available to non-premium users as well.
Google has been pushing its AI Mode-style search on multiple services beyond YouTube.
The company introduced AI Mode last year, letting users ask multi-part questions and follow-ups.
This year, it introduced side-by-side web browsing and product price exploration features for AI Mode.
The company also introduced Gemini's Canvas feature to maintain projects within AI mode last month.
With this new feature tasked on YouTube, Google could later explore surfacing different kinds of videos and, along with sponsored placements.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Aisha Malik, Ivan Mehta, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow, same Tech Time, same Crunch channel, and until then, remember, you can find us at TechCrunch.com.
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