Google is reportedly boosting nonsense AI-generated articles that are ripping off other outlets on its Google News service. If Google is not purposefully clogging the internet with AI’s garbage content, it is a sign that the company’s black box algorithms can be gamed by scheming profiteers.
AI-generated rip-off articles have made their way into Google News results, while the tech giant says it is not concerned about whether an article is produced by a human or AI, according to a report by 404 Media.
Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during the Google I/O Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, US, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Google told the outlet that while it tries to counter spam on Google News, it doesn’t focus on how an article is created.
This paves the way for more AI-generated news articles to reach the top of search results and therefore accidentally be viewed by readers as content that was authentically created by humans.
404 Media pointed out that AI-generated news articles on Google News signals that “the black box nature of Google News, with entry into Google News’ rankings in the first place an opaque, but apparently gameable, system.”
It also means that Google “may not be ready for moderating its News service in the age of consumer-access AI, where essentially anyone is able to churn out a mass of content with little to no regard for its quality or originality,” the outlet added.
“I want to read the original stories written by journalists who actually researched them and spoke to primary sources. Any news junkie would,” ghostwriter Brian Penny, who first flagged the AI-generated articles to 404 Media, told the outlet.
The ever-increasing presence and popularity of AI has been threatening multiple industries, as people fear that it will take over and ultimately replace humans with computer-generated content.
As Breitbart News reported in December, the New York Times has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and ChatGPT developer OpenAI claiming that their AI models steal content from the Times and other publishers to train their AI systems.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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