Over half the articles on the internet are now churned out by AI, according to a new study from SEO firm Graphite, a finding reported by Axios. The catch? The AI-generated "slop" is performing poorly in search results, signaling a potential limit to the bot-driven content boom.
The ChatGPT effect: The deluge follows a predictable path, kicking off right after OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT in late 2022. The ascent was staggering: in the year following its debut, AI's share of published articles shot up to nearly 40% and eventually peaked at 55% as publishers raced to cut costs.
Hitting a wall: But the robot takeover has stalled. The data shows the flood of AI content has stabilized since May 2024; the gold rush is slowing as creators face diminishing returns. "We hypothesize that this is because practitioners found that AI-generated articles do not perform well in search," Graphite stated in its report.
AI may be winning on quantity, but human-written work still has the upper hand on quality and authenticity. Search algorithms are rewarding that human touch, and for good reason: they’re mirroring a skeptical public that largely distrusts automated content. For those looking to go deeper, Graphite published a separate analysis on how AI content performs in search.
