I don't think it's the ads people need to be worried about. It's pages, groups and their "users" posts manipulating people. News flash: a majority aren't even real human users.
Ads are less worrisome because you know they're an ad because they are marked with a icon usually. It's the fake posts that are tricking people into beliefs without them even realizing that it's propaganda/ads
I the term bot is interesting, I think it cbelievean be expanded to any automata predictably responding in a certain fashion. Twitter "reply" accounts even if operated by humans but acting like bots should be considered bots. Posts that don't move the discussion along but just reaffirm in one direction or the other are just pure noise and useless. Discourse is broken or the human brain is, unsure which it is.
I always doubt anyone who sees 'bots' everywhere they go, but I agree with them on the groups part. https://old.reddit.com/r/ShitMomGroupsSay/ regularly has some good examples.
Ironically, I've posted there a couple of times in a way that (barely) went against their own groupthink and got downvoted like crazy.
My personal theory is that we have been mingling with AI generated content long before Chat GPT was revealed to the public, at least in the last 10-15 years. And that Chat GPT was not the first on the block manipulating people with the technology. I just think this based on the fact that the NSA was spying on people long before whistle blowers revealed it, same has to go for AI manipulation by various government agencies and non government "bad actors". We may get confirmation of this within the next 10-15 years if someone blows a whistle.