Published by New Media Ghost
Last updated August 2026
We originally published the article below in 2022, when Google’s position on AI generated content was different. We have retained it because it documents how Google’s guidance and our own work with AI and search have evolved.
2026 Update on AI Generated Content
When this article was originally published in 2022, Google’s John Mueller described AI generated content as automatically generated content and therefore against Google’s guidelines at the time. Google’s position has since evolved. Using AI to help create content is not automatically considered spam or against Google Search guidelines. What matters is whether the content is useful, original and created to help people rather than primarily to manipulate search rankings.
A hot topic right now is news on AI generated SEO content is classed as spam by Google. John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate has called AI generated content ‘spam’ whilst answering a question by Rohan Chaubey, a reddit moderator during Google Search Central SEO office hours hangout.
Googles webmaster guidelines have recommend users to avoid this for some time. They are not stipulating that you don’t use it, but do state “If you’re hosting such content on your site, prevent it from showing up in search.” Why you may ask? Because Google is still requiring high quality and user friendly content. To avoid receiving a penalty, either stop using AI content for SEO until guidelines are changed, or remove it from searches.
Content is king, or so the drum keeps beating. Approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is being churned each day (SeedScientific). You can see why AI content may have a part to play. We must remember content is nothing if it doesn’t interest the user.
How Will Google Know Your Content Is AI Generated
Typically, it may bypass google’s algorithms. That is until the manual searchers from their webspam team find it. The big search engine’s guidelines warn users that they will take action if content is intended to manipulate search rankings.
The response on YouTube continued. John Mueller said: “ From our recommendation we still see it as automatically generated content. I think over time maybe this is something that will evolve in that it will become more of a tool for people. Kind of like you would use machine translation as a basis for creating a translated version of a website, but you still work through it manually.
And maybe over time these AI tools will evolve in that direction that you use them to be more efficient in your writing or to make sure that you’re writing in a proper way like the spelling and the grammar checking tools, which are also based on machine learning. But I don’t know what the future brings there.”
The question is, with the world moving ahead using AI in many different ways, such as medical healthcare, technologies to assist businesses become sharper and better, including Google too; is it time for Google to accept AI Generated content from everyone. Or, is it better to remove AI generated content to keep writing creative, authentic and meaningful words?
