A Tunisian cyber-education specialist raises alarm over the emerging use of generative AI to influence user emotions and decisions through mood-tailored advertising, sparking calls for stricter safeguards and transparency.
A Tunisian cyber-education specialist has warned that generative artificial intelligence is no longer just a tool for collecting personal data but is increasingly capable of shaping users’ emotions and decisions through advertising systems tuned to mood. Mohamed Ben Naaman, founder of the Tunisian Association for the Protection of Children and Youth from Information Technology, said the risk now extends beyond ordinary profiling to the manipulation of anger, sadness and other emotional states, with possible effects on both thought patterns and spending behaviour.
Ben Naaman argued that this creates a market for information that should be handled with caution, particularly when people engage with AI while upset or emotionally exposed. He said all age groups are vulnerable in such moments and advised users to avoid extended conversations with generative AI when they are angry or distressed. His warning reflects a broader concern among digital-safety advocates that emotional cues can be used to refine persuasion, not just to personalise content.
That concern has been echoed by recent reporting in the BBC, which found that generative AI tools are being used to build targeted advertising content around users’ emotional states. The BBC said the practice raises privacy questions because systems can analyse interaction patterns and mood signals to craft more persuasive ads. The Guardian, CNBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post have also reported growing unease over AI-driven advertising, with critics arguing that the technology can blur the line between personalisation and emotional exploitation.
The debate now centres on whether existing advertising rules are sufficient for systems that can infer mood in real time and adapt messaging accordingly. Industry figures and privacy advocates quoted by those publications have called for clearer disclosure, stronger safeguards and more explicit limits on how emotional data is used. For users, the immediate lesson is simpler: treat conversational AI as a system that can respond to vulnerability as well as preference, and use it carefully when judgement is already under strain.
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