At some point in the future, WHO can create works of art, music, and writing that rival those created by humans. Currently, the most impressive thing about most creative AIs is their ability to produce a lot of mediocre work very quickly. This capability is transforming many industries: In the world of higher education, where I work, we discovered that it is difficult to distinguish AI-generated mediocrity from something that indicates that a students are learning to create good products. But no industry has been more transformed by AI than the world of search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization is the dark art of making a business more prominent in searches for a specific keyword. Because search engines rely on links, a popular form of search engine optimization involves creating thousands of pages of realistic-looking text that link to the page the client wants to advertise on. . This search engine spam is a common invasion on the modern web, and synthetic AIs do a great job of generating it on the fly. Indeed, search engine spam is so common that Google, Bing, and other search engines now offer AI-based assistants that promise to answer questions in a human-like fashion instead of directing frustrated users. into search engine spam phishing. And so, as internet scholars Documented by Judith Donath and Bruce SchneierWe're starting to see LLMO (large language model optimization) in an effort to make new search engine AI return specific data or recommendations to promote one website or product over another. other products.
In other words, the web is increasingly becoming a place for automatically generated content written by machines designed to be read by machines. As a result, authentic human voices are becoming a rare and sought-after commodity. For years, knowledgeable people have added “website:reddit.com” to search in hopes of getting actual human opinions, but SEO has now come to Reddit, with AI-powered robots promise to mention your products in comment threads in an “authentic, human-like” way.
To find a truly human voice, in 2025 we will increasingly flock to the oldest corners of the web, where human moderation helps keep the machines in check. Consider it Meta filterestablished in 1999; it's where 12,000 paying members, supported by a small team of moderators, recommend the best sites and stories they've found and answer each other's questions in AskMeFi. Or Are.naan ad-free social network where users curate collections of videoclips, images, and web links to document their interests and explore rabbit holes.
In 2025, we will also create our own human space using some of the latest social media tools available. Our research shows that in addition to the influencers and micro-celebrities dominating your TikTok and YouTube feeds, there are millions of video producers do not want to spread. Instead, they create short videos for family and friends, sabotage recommendation algorithms, and use social media not for celebrity but to maintain social relationships.
Whether or not AI dominates our entertainment and knowledge future, it's safe to say that humans still want to connect with each other. In 2025, as artificial voices continue to eclipse human voices, tools that help us find authentic voices may be just as valuable as voices that can pretend to be human. convince.