Google's AI is being manipulated. The search giant is quietly fighting back

A BBC investigation revealed a simple way AI chatbots are being made to spit out misinformation to the public. Google and other AI companies are now trying to fix the problem.

I did something stupid back in February. I heard there was an easy way to poison AI chatbots and make them spread lies on your behalf. After some digging, I learned unscrupulous companies are abusing the problem on a massive scale. So I decided to try it myself.

We uncovered examples where ChatGPT, Gemini and the AI Overviews at the top of Google Search were being manipulated to dole out biased answers on topics as serious as your health and personal finances. And in just 20 minutes, I tricked ChatGPT and Google into telling the public that I am a world-champion competitive hot-dog eater. The joke was dumb. The problem is serious.

But the gimmick worked. Our investigation and the work of researchers who've been monitoring this issue sparked widespread criticism. Now Google has updated its policies to address the problem, and there are signs that other AI companies are following suit. Ultimately, it could make AI tools and the internet as a whole a little bit safer.

But until there are better systems in place, experts say you're in danger of getting fooled.

"You should assume that you're being manipulated until they have better systems in place," says Lily Ray, founder of the search engine optimisation (SEO) and AI search consultancy Algorythmic. "We're moving towards this 'one true answer' world. Before, Google would give you 10 blue links and you would kind of do your own research. But AI just gives you one answer. It becomes so easy to just take things at face value. You need to be careful."

Google tells me that its policy update is just a "clarification" of the efforts it has been making for a while. "We've long applied our core anti-spam policies and protections to our generative AI Search features – and we've always continually upgraded our spam fighting efforts to stay ahead of emerging tactics, even before the rise of AI," a Google spokesperson says. 

Essentially, Google says it hasn't changed a thing. But behind the scenes, it seems like Google and other companies are ramping up their efforts to address the problem. Even so, there is evidence that people are still using the exact same techniques to fool the world's biggest search engine. 

Typically, when you ask a chatbot a question, the AI generates a response based on the data built into the model. But sometimes, tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Google's various AI products search the internet for an answer. And that's where this problem happens. 

According to Ray and other search engine experts, AI tools often throw up information from a single web page or social media post. This leaves these systems vulnerable to bogus information. 

And it turns out manipulating what chatbots tell the public can be as simple as publishing one, well-crafted blogpost almost........

© BBC