In November of last year, marketing firm Cox Media Group (CMG) Local Solutions whipped up a storm with its service 'Active Listening.' The company claimed to use AI to capture conversations from smart devices and deliver targeted ads based on them. Fear not, the FTC has now stepped in: CMG will pay $880,000 for false advertising.

The reality was far less exciting. CMG resold email lists—big surprise!—rather than actually tapping into any devices. The company's attempts to extract real-time voice data were as plausible as a telemarketer claiming to know what you had for breakfast.

Not that the concept is entirely without merit; some companies are indeed making strides in using anonymized, aggregated data for ads. But CMG’s claims were more akin to a snake oil salesman's pitch than anything grounded in reality.

The FTC isn’t the only one upset: two marketing firms that worked with CMG will also pay fines of $25,000 each. Clearly, there are limits to what businesses can claim, even if they're just making stuff up.