Google Search Promoter John Mueller says content automatically generated using AI writing tools is considered spam, according to the search engine’s webmaster guidelines.

This topic was discussed in a recent hangout during the Google Search Central SEO office hours in response to a question about GPT-3 AI writing tools.

There is debate in the SEO community about the use of GPT-3 tools and whether they are acceptable in Google’s view.

Mueller said AI-written content falls under the category of automatically generated content, which can lead to a manual penalty.

However, Google’s systems may lack the ability to detect AI -generated content without the help of reviewers.

As we will explain later in this article, there are practical uses for AI writing tools and many reputable organizations use them without issue.

First, let’s look at Mueller’s response to the question about how Google views the use of these tools.

Automatically Generated Content is Against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Regardless of the tools used to create it, the machine -written content is considered to be generated automatically.

As Mueller quickly pointed out, Google’s position on automatically generated content is always clear:

“For us, they will, essentially, still fall into the category of auto -generated content which is something we’ve had in the Webmaster Guidelines since almost the beginning.

And people automatically generate content in many different ways. And for us, if you’re using machine learning tools to build your content, it’s pretty much the same as if you’re just shuffling words around, or looking for synonyms, or doing the translation tricks that people used to do. Those things.

My suspicion is that maybe the quality of the content is a bit better than really old school equipment, but for us it still automatically generates content, and that means for us it’s still against Webmaster Guidelines. So we will consider that spam. “

Can Google Identify AI Generated Content?

A follow-up question is asked about Google’s ability to identify content written by machine learning tools.

Can Google understand the difference between human -written content and machine -written content?

Mueller says nothing about Google’s automatic detection of content written in AI.

However, if Google’s webspam team happens to find it, they are authorized to act on it.

“I can’t claim that. But for us, if we see that something is generated automatically, then the webspam team will definitely take action on that.

And I don’t know how the future will evolve there, but I think that like the rest of these technologies, there will be a little bit of a cat and mouse game, where sometimes people will do something and they get away with it, and then the webspam team caught up and resolved that issue on a broader scale.

From our recommendation we still see it as automatically generated content. I think over time maybe it’s something that will evolve that it’s going to be more of a tool for people. It’s like you’re going to use machine translation as the basis for creating a translated version of a website, but you’re still doing it manually.

And perhaps over time these AI tools will evolve in that direction where you will use them to become better at your writing or to make sure you write the right way like spelling and tools. grammar analysis, which is also based on machine learning. But I don’t know what the future holds there. ”

Mueller clarified that Google does not consider how AI writing tools are used.

Using them in any capacity is considered spam, he added.

“Currently all of this is against webmaster guidelines. So from our perspective, if we come across something like this, if the webspam team sees it, they’ll see it as spam.

To hear his full response, check out the video below:

What Does This Mean For Your Website?

Here are some insights from the head of SEJ’s editorial team on what Mueller’s response means for your website.

“I think the biggest takeaway from this particular Q&A is that Google’s algorithms don’t automatically determine the content generated by language models like GPT-3,” he said. Miranda Miller, Sr. Managing Editor here at Search Engine Journal.

“The message here is that if Google detects auto -generated content, the webspam team can take action. But we’re not talking about article spinners in 2003.

“Using artificial intelligence of the media, universities, and other organizations for automation of research and cross-referencing, crawling and classification of content in multiple languages ​​to identify emerging trends, generating article summaries and paper, fact checking, data crunch, and even writing. whole article, ”he pointed out.

“The Associated Press began using AI for story development in 2014. Putting AI into content creation is not new, and the most important factor here is its smart application,” Miller said, citing the use of AI will help content creators overcome language and literacy barriers, improve the quality of their writing, and more.

“This is a good outcome. Isn’t it strange for Google to ban the use of AI by webmasters and content creators for the purpose of improving the user experience when they use it themselves? “He added.

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