AI-generated spams threaten the integrity of the Internet

Approximately a year after ChatGPT made its debut, a forecast about its Internet impact is unfolding – AI spam is swamping the web.

Business Insider reports that recently they witnessed three incidents illustrating this phenomenon.

First off, 404 Media, a fresh tech blog, had to tweak its website due to AI spam. They've observed AI-crafted versions of their articles popping up on spammy sites by applying search engine optimisation tactics.

These imitations sometimes even outrank genuine 404 Media articles on Google search results. The schemers behind this exploit are making a profit by running ads on these AI-generated web pages.

Jason at 404 Media explored the world of AI tools promising to "spin" articles. SpinRewriter, for instance, enables users to generate 1,000 slightly varied versions of an article with a click and publish them across numerous WordPress sites using paid plugins.

Another company called Byword boasts about the "SEO heist" that nabbed 3.6M traffic from a competitor by creating AI versions of 1,800 articles.

These AI duplicates inflict harm on the news industry, diverting clicks and revenue from outlets investing real time and money in reporting.

Next, Wired reported that The Hairpin, a popular indie blog, fell prey to an AI click farmer who retained some top articles but swapped female authors' names with male names. AI click firming means artificially generating clicks on web content for deceptive purposes by artificially inflating metrics using bots.

At the darkest end of the AI-spam spectrum are AI-generated obituaries, filled with errors, causing anguish to bereaved families. Wired previously flagged "obituary pirates" scraping and replicating funeral home websites. Now, they exploit AI to craft YouTube videos and spam sites from obituaries, capitalising on search traffic of recently deceased individuals.

Google, too, faces repercussions as it serves up subpar results to users, given the onslaught of AI-generated content. The New York Times highlighted a real-life case where AI-generated YouTube videos added distress to a grieving family following a tragic accident.

The rise of AI is reshaping the Internet, for better or worse. It falls on Google and AI tool developers to mitigate the ensuing harm.