In a new study from EBU, the company found that “AI Assistants “routinely misrepresents news content, no matter which language, territory, or AI platform is tested.” After evaluating over 3,000 AI responses, discoveries included outdated or incorrect information, sourcing issues, and hallucinated answers.
What Else The EBU Study Revealed:
- The number of responses with significant issues of any type decreased from 51% to 37%.
- CoPilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity had 1/3 of these issues, while Google’s Gemini had around 1/2.
- Gemini had the largest sourcing issue, with over 72% of responses incorrectly attributed.
What Does This Mean for Your Website?
If AI-Powered Search Engines continue to rely on outdated/ incorrect information, this could significantly hurt your business. For example, suppose someone searches on Google for “hamburgers near me.” Google’s AI-Assistant leads them to your website, which sold burgers at one point, but has since removed the dish from the menu. Had the customer gone to your restaurant, not only will they see your business as “untrustworthy,” but they’ll probably not want to patronize there, either.
Why Do AI-Powered Search Engines Source Incorrect Information?
As the Columbia Journalism Review reported earlier this year, “ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Perplexity Pro exhibited unexpected behaviors given what we know about which publishers allow them crawler access. On some occasions, the chatbots either incorrectly answered or declined to answer queries from publishers that permitted them to access their content. On the other hand, they sometimes correctly answered queries about publishers whose content they shouldn’t have had access to.” Whether these issues will be ironed out over time is still up for debate.
How You Can Get AI-Powered Search Engines to Accurately Represent Your Website:
- Monitor your rankings in AI-Powered Search Engines. If your website is ranking in any of the “Overviews” sections, pay attention to how the AI has used your website as a source for a particular search query.
- Try to answer specific questions as clear as possible.
Need More Help with Your Website’s AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization)? Contact Boston Web Marketing, New England’s Largest Independent Digital Marketing Company!
At Boston Web Marketing, we can help you rank better on AI-Powered search engines today. As the region’s #1 Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and Website Design company, our team is the real deal. Whether you need help with content, keyword strategies, or getting AI to represent your content better, we’re on it. To learn more about our services, or to request a free website consultation, contact us on our website or call us at 857-349-5062. We’ll be in touch soon.