Following our report, CNET It has quietly published dozens of AI-generated articles, many of which are in an unwarranted attempt to eliminate the work of entry-level human writers and downplay bad content to human readers. He expressed disappointment that it looked like
But one group was very excited. Spammers couldn’t contain their glee at what mainstream publishers were doing with mass-producing bot-generated content, and soon announced plans to do the same.
“It’s time to get your content out there at lightning speed,” enthused in one poster at BlackHatWorld, the infamous black hat search engine optimization forum. Members trade dirty tricks and sell illegal services.
“Now is the time to maximize this pivotal moment in reducing writer costs,” another voice echoed.
This means that tools like ChatGPT allow criminals to pollute the internet with an almost limitless amount of garbage generated by bots. CNET — and its sister publications bank rate — now paved the way. In a way, this is a perfect illustration of recent warnings by academics at Stanford and Georgetown Universities that AI technology could rapidly begin to fill the internet with endless amounts of misinformation and ill-gotten gains. .
Spammers were particularly adamant about Google’s response. CNET When bank rate An AI revelation they interpreted as a reversal of their previous stance of penalizing AI-generated content in search results.
“Our ranking team focuses on the usefulness of content, not how it is created,” Danny Sullivan, public search officer at the company, said at the time.. “This allows us to create solutions aimed at reducing all kinds of unhelpful content in search, whether created by humans or automated processes.”
At BlackHatWorld, spammers interpreted these statements as freely launching AI content.
“This is nothing but Google giving in to AI,” wrote one. “Basically, they are saying, ‘We don’t have the ability. [of] Distinction[ing] Between AI content and manual content, we embrace it as a way of life. “
“My AI content serves users…it serves them ads!” Another poster denounced the search giant. “So are you okay, Big G?”
It’s true that the rise of ChatGPT-level AI-generated content represents an escalation in Google’s long-running battle with spammers. However, according to the company, spammers who actively migrate to ChatGPT-style technology will face a disrespectful awakening.
As a Google spokesperson pointed out in response to a question, Sullivan and others at the search giant have been voicing nuances about AI-generated content for some time now.
Some employees have warned that Google will consider AI-generated content spam, according to a company spokesperson, which is created by bots designed to manipulate search engine systems. I was talking specifically about. In fact, AI-generated content isn’t banned per se, but content designed primarily to boost search rankings still violates the company’s spam policy and is open to crackdowns. is ripe.
“I’m not saying AI content is bad,” Sullivan said. I have written For example, go back to November 2022. “We’ve been pretty clear that content written primarily for search engines, not humans, is the problem. That’s what we focus on. If you launch 100 humans to write content just for the sake of it, or launch a spinner, or an AI, same problem.”
In other words, the ultimate goal, he says, is not to punish content simply because it was generated by AI, but to hold spam and unhelpful content accountable regardless of who created it.
“For more than two decades, search has adapted to deal with new spam techniques and low-quality content, including mass-produced content in many forms,” Sullivan said in a new statement. Futurism“We detect over 40 billion spam pages every day and hide them from our search results. Content created for the purpose of ranking games in search results whether it is human-generated or AI-generated. Regardless, it’s still spam and will be treated as such.”
Google’s ability to meet the challenges of ubiquitous AI-generated content could have a significant impact on the quality of online information. Because it’s still the de facto tool most people use to find anything on the open web.
On the one hand, Google has vast engineering capabilities, decades of experience, and huge investments of its own in AI technology, all of which can be leveraged against AI-generated spam.But if CNET‘s commitment to AI-generated content is a sign of what’s to come, and it will remain an uphill battle for one simple reason. This new generation of AI-generated Drek is very convincing on the surface level.
Following the first story, CNET Editor-in-Chief Connie Guglielmo published a rather lukewarm post publicly acknowledging the AI program and assuring readers that every article was carefully fact-checked by a human editor. As reported accordingly, CNET‘s AI-generated financial explainer revealed that while written with confidence, it was riddled with blatant factual errors.
The AI failed to adequately explain how basic compound interest works, garbled elementary facts about personal banking. To make matters worse, this explainer was clearly aimed at people with high financial literacy, so if it ranked on Google, it would expose those most in need of help to the lowest quality information imaginable. Become.
These annoying inaccuracies mean that while AI can piece together grammatically correct sentences, it often fails to get even basic facts right despite adopting an authoritative tone. indicates that
But if Google’s repeated stance on spam and unhelpful content is true, there are still explainers written by AI honed to please search algorithms, plagued with embarrassing inaccuracies. Why are we ranking so high? A quick search shows it CNET‘s AI-generated description, with accurate warnings, is still one of Google’s first results.
Are you a current or former employee of CNET and want to talk about the company’s foray into AI-generated articles? Email us at tips@futurism.com to share your perspective . If you don’t want to be identified by name, no problem.
Another drawback is that much AI content is likely to go unlabeled.but CNETformer staffers now argue that the AI-generated material so labeled may have been just the tip of the iceberg.
at the end of the day, CNET When bank rate There are still staff outraged by the AI initiative, concerned with doing things right. One of his Red Ventures employees said this week, Futurismreport of bank rate suspended the publication of all AI-generated content on Wednesday. CNET It seems to have done the same, at least temporarily.
However, BlackHatWorld spammers may not have such qualms. One in particular, he had his own dark ideas about the rise of AI.
“What if Google fully embraced AI content and rolled out its own ChatGPT-style search functionality, allowing users to get answers directly without clicking on a website?” they thought. “It would be devastating for the Internet as a whole.”
Jon Christian contributed to the report.
CNET AI saga details: CNET’s Article Creation AI Is Already Exposing Very Ridiculous Errors
