How To Influence The AI Generative Engines

Lily Ray, who is a bad ass in general but an even more bad ass when it comes to search engine optimization, ran a small study to find out which AI model is the most gullible.

Lily used her personal blog to run a small test to see if she could influence the AI engines.

The what Lily found out was worrisome and a bit funny on some level.

Her findings were:

• "LLMs like Google’s AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, and ChatGPT incorporated my fictional “SEO rankings” within 24 hours of publishing."
• "Google’s LLMs often added context indicating the article was lighthearted or playful – an improvement over blindly trusting sources or presenting this made-up information as factual."
• "Perplexity and Claude were more cautious, often declining to answer or flagging the lack of reliable, consensus-based information."
• "Some LLMs repeated my satirical claim that rankings were “based on extensive research” without providing other context, highlighting risks of citation without verification."
• "This test demonstrates how quickly and easily internet-connected LLMs can potentially be influenced by newly indexed content, even if that information is not entirely true or reliable."

This is worrisome for the future of knowledge online. Though Perplexity, who I feel is used more as a search engine seems to have been more cautious. But it seems Gemini, Google's Large Language Model, seems to be way too trusting and off the wall.

What I found entertaining was more who she picked to make facts up about. Some notable ones were Glenn Gabe and Jono Anderson, two well known SEOs.

So Where Does This Leave Us As Marketers And As A Society?

In a very strange spot, to be honest. What Lily's small study shows is that manipulating AI search is going to be an industry or off-shoot of SEO going forward.

It also shows a more dangerous side of AI search, at least currently. These LLMs are too trusting of what they read online. Sound familiar fellow human? 🤪

But we also have to remember that these systems will be tweaked and improve over time. It might not seem like it, but we're still only around 2 years in with AI being in the zeitgeist and top of mind. Standard SEO changed drastically since the 90's. AI search will as well.

Is SEO Dead? Nope!

Ultimately, the SEO industry is changing. But it always has. Every new technology that comes to market the influences search, the SEO community is experimenting and learning to use to their benefit.

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