Google Stresses The Need To Fact Check AI-Generated Content

Highlights

• Google cautions that generative AI can produce factual errors.
• Outdated SEO advice from AI models is a real risk.
• Human fact-checking is necessary before publishing AI-generated content.

“My bigger problem with pretty much all generative AI is the factuality – you always have to fact check whatever they are spitting out. That kind of scares me that now we are just going to read it live, and maybe we are going to say stuff that is not even true.”

Outdated SEO Advice Exposed

The concerns stemmed from an AI-generated tweet suggesting using rel=”prev/next” for pagination – a technique that Google has deprecated.

Gemini suggested publishing the following tweet:

“Pagination causing duplicate content headaches? Use rel=prev, rel=next to guide Google through your content sequences. #technicalSEO, #GoogleSearch.”

Sassman immediately identified the advice as outdated. Mueller confirms rel=prev and rel=next is still unsupported:

“It’s gone. It’s gone. Well, I mean, you can still use it. You don’t have to make it gone. It’s just ignored.”

Earlier in the podcast, Sassman warned inaccuracies could result from outdated training data information.

Sassman stated:

“If there’s enough myth circulating or a certain thought about something or even outdated information
that has been blogged about a lot, it might come up in our exercise today, potentially.”

Human Oversight Still Critical

While the Google Search Relations team saw the potential for AI-generated content, their discussion stressed the need for human fact-checking.

Illyes’ concerns reflect the broader discourse around responsible AI adoption. Human oversight is necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation.

Why SEJ Cares

While AI-powered tools can potentially aid in content creation and analysis, as Google’s own team illustrated, a healthy degree of skepticism is warranted.

Blindly deploying generative AI to create content can result in publishing outdated or harmful information that could negatively impact your SEO and reputation.

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