The Rise of AI-Generated Content Farms: A Warning from NewsGuard
On Monday, NewsGuard issued a warning that a new wave of content farms is on the horizon, this time powered by AI-generated content. According to NewsGuard, it found 49 websites spanning seven languages, including Chinese, Czech, English, French, Portuguese, Tagalog, and Thai, “that appear to be entirely or mostly generated by artificial intelligence language models designed to mimic human communication.”
Content farms find tools like ChatGPT particularly attractive because they are free to utilize. This makes it possible for them to churn out fresh click-bait articles at a rapid pace and post them on obscure websites, while also conducting search engine optimization to draw traffic. The revenue streams in through ads that run alongside the machine-generated prose. Before the advent of AI, content farms would hire writers to churn out copy. However, AI can create more content than human writers, and at a lower cost.
The websites, frequently lacking transparency about their ownership and control, churn out a vast quantity of content spanning a diverse range of topics, encompassing politics, health, entertainment, finance, and technology. A sizable number of these sites produce hundreds of articles daily, with some disseminating fabricated narratives. Nearly all the content comprises uninspiring language and repetitious expressions, characteristic features of machine-generated text.
The majority of these websites are inundated with advertisements, pointing to the likelihood that they were established to generate income from programmatic ads. Programmatic ads are algorithmically placed across the internet and support a substantial portion of the world's media. This purpose is similar to the first generation of human-operated content farms created for the same reason.
In addition, NewsGuard discovered that the digital footprints of the AI-generated sites are incredibly diverse in size. Some websites advertise their articles on social media platforms that have hundreds of thousands of followers, while others generate content that receives no engagement whatsoever.
For instance, ScoopEarth.com, which churns out cookie-cutter biographies about public figures, divided into sections such as "early life," "relationship status," and "net worth," frequently shares its articles on the Indian Facebook page, Scoop Earth, with a following of 124,000 people.
NewsGuard's team of journalists and analysts employed their expertise to identify distinct clues that a website is powered by AI. These signs can be as obvious as sentences like "I am not capable of producing 1500 words… However, I can provide you with a summary of the article" or "my cutoff date in September 2021." Other telltale signs include websites churning out multiple articles on mundane topics or simply regurgitating news from other sources without conducting original research.
Unfortunately, even reputable news sites have begun utilizing AI-generated content, which can introduce factual errors that slip past the editing process and potentially perpetuate misinformation. Companies such as Buzzfeed, Venturebeat, ZDNet, and Cnet have all publicly stated that they plan on using AI to create some of their content in the future. Political campaigns have also jumped on the AI bandwagon, using it to generate images for online marketing.
Despite the advantages of AI-generated content, NewsGuard's investigation reveals that content farms are brazenly exploiting AI technology, with hardly any editorial checks in place to verify its output. With the proliferation of readily available services that can generate coherent text devoid of grammatical errors, the number of AI-generated content farms is increasing.
While NewsGuard has uncovered 49 websites that produce AI-generated content, it is likely that many more exist, reaping profits from ad views without creating any tangible value. The situation could prove problematic for major ad networks if their clients realize their marketing budget is being spent on unsavory or inappropriate content.
As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, it's essential to be vigilant about the sources of information we consume. While the rise of AI-generated content has brought many benefits, it's also brought new challenges that we must face as a society. NewsGuard's warning is a reminder that we must be careful about where we get our news and information from, and always be on the lookout for signs of AI-generated content.
Alan Herrera is the Editorial Supervisor for the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFPC-USA), where he oversees the organization’s media platform, foreignpress.org. He previously served as AFPC-USA’s General Secretary from 2019 to 2021 and as its Treasurer until early 2022.
Alan is an editor and reporter who has worked on interviews with such individuals as former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci; Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the former President of the United Nations General Assembly; and Mariangela Zappia, the former Permanent Representative to Italy for the U.N. and current Italian Ambassador to the United States.
Alan has spent his career managing teams as well as commissioning, writing, and editing pieces on subjects like sustainable trade, financial markets, climate change, artificial intelligence, threats to the global information environment, and domestic and international politics. Alan began his career writing film criticism for fun and later worked as the Editor on the content team for Star Trek actor and activist George Takei, where he oversaw the writing team and championed progressive policy initatives, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ rights advocacy.