Google News Boosting “Garbage” AI-Generated Articles, Says 404 Media
In a recent report by 404 Media, it has been revealed that the news aggregate Google News has been increasingly filled with what are being called “garbage articles” generated by artificial intelligence (AI). These articles are often rewritten materials from other sources that are published without any form of verification.
An example of this situation is the recent case of the website Worldtimethodays, which published an article about Star Wars that was very similar to material previously released on Distractify.
The article published by Worldtimetodays inexplicably included a photograph of the author from the original article, as well as several strange phrases typically associated with AI-generated content. For instance, instead of using the phrase “Fans of Star Wars,” the article referred to them as “fans of the war of the stars.” Additionally, the site included articles that were minimally processed from the original source, Heavy, even retaining watermarks on the images.
It is likely that the creators of this controversial site employed an automated text and image parser, which was then processed by conditional Chatgpt and published as a finished article. These conclusions can be drawn by considering the fact that even the most basic human editing would have excluded such absurd errors.
Responding promptly to the situation, Google representatives denied the accusation that such sites hold a prominent position on Google News. They state that these resources are only visible in the aggregator when using very specific search queries with filters to exclude original article dates.
Google also emphasized that their content ranking algorithm prioritizes quality over the method of creation. Automatically generated content aimed at manipulating site rankings is typically considered spam and appropriate measures are taken to prevent its appearance in news feeds.
Nevertheless, given the ongoing advancements and accessibility of AI, it is anticipated that the number of unreliable articles will only increase in the future. Some of these articles may find their way into popular news aggregators, including those serving Russian-speaking audiences.
In light of this, it is crucial to recognize that the presence of material in news aggregators does not guarantee its reliability. It is advisable to approach any information