Thousands of undisclosed ads flooded TikTok to sell AI study apps

Last month, a TikTok account named @studywithinez issued a warning to college students. 

“My uni cannon event was when i realised there was legit NO way to get away with using chatgpt now, that oxford comma or em dash WILL get you expelled,” read text that was superimposed over a short clip of a young woman looking at the camera and shaking her head. “Please use a proper ai for uni like grammarly or jenni ai do not risk being being unemployed forever for chatgpt,” 

The account was created in August and since then it has posted more than 100 videos with variations of the same advice: use Jenni AI.

For months, TikTok and, to a lesser extent, Instagram have been deluged by thousands of videos from young, attractive, mostly female students that praise AI study apps like Jenni without revealing that they’re paid promotions.

Indicator identified dozens of accounts like @studywithinez that have been pumping out undisclosed ads for Jenni. The only hint that they’re affiliated with the product are occasional references to "Growing jenni" or "Building w/ Jenni" in the accounts’ bios. But more than a third of the profiles made no reference to Jenni — and none of the videos reviewed by Indicator disclosed the paid relationship in the audio or visual content.

The videos are part of a large scale user-generated content campaign that recruited young creators — including at least one apparent high schooler — with promises of cash bonuses for viral hits.

Indicator also found that Mindgrasp, the Maryland company behind Jenni, operates TikTok and Instagram accounts that post staged confrontations between students and professors/TAs in order to promote its apps. One account, @myangryprofessor, has received over 8 million views and 6 million likes across more than 150 posts. None of the videos reviewed by Indicator disclosed that they were staged for promotional purposes. The students and profs/TAs featured in the videos are a mix of actors and company employees, the investigation found.

The campaign likely violates TikTok and Instagram’s branded content policies and the Federal Trade Commission's endorsement rules, according to Robert Freund, an advertising and e-commerce lawyer who reviewed the Jenni accounts at Indicator’s request.

“The whole premise of the endorsement guides and the rules that the FTC tries to enforce is that people should understand when they're being advertised to,” he said.