At the Search Central Tokyo 2023, Google executives, including Gary Illyes, shed light on a plethora of AI-related topics, including their perspective on AI-generated content. This gathering offered new revelations about how Google’s search algorithms treat such content, reinforcing the importance of content quality above all.
Kenichi Suzuki, a renowned Japanese search marketing guru, presented at this event. He also compiled a comprehensive summary of the most crucial insights unveiled during the conference in a follow-up Japanese blog post.
One significant point highlighted, which isn’t exactly a revelation, is Google’s indifference to the source of content, whether human or AI-generated. Regardless of the origin, be it from a machine learning model or a human brain, the emphasis for Google always leans towards the quality of the content itself. In other words, top-quality content remains king, regardless of its generation process.
However, a less-known fact that came to light was whether Google differentiates between human and AI-generated content. The answer is, they don’t. As Suzuki wrote, a Google representative (presumably Gary Illyes) asserted that Google doesn’t tag AI-generated content specifically. Google does not necessitate the explicit labeling of AI content. It’s left to the discretion of the publishers whether to distinguish AI content or not, gauging what they believe provides the best user experience.
Google’s stand is clear: the focus is not whether the content is AI-generated but how well it serves the user. The company encourages a human touch, however. It advised against publishing AI-generated content “as-is” without a preliminary review by a human editor. The same counsel extends to translated content – human review prior to publishing is a good practice.
Arguably the most thought-provoking remark from Google was a reminder about the nature of their search algorithms. These intricate systems are based on human content, so natural, human-like content takes precedence in the ranking order.
As a bottom line, it appears that as technology evolves and AI-generated content becomes more commonplace, Google’s guiding principle remains anchored in ensuring user-friendly, high-quality content. The machine-generated or human-produced debate seems secondary, reinforcing the idea that content quality triumphs above all in Google’s search algorithms.
