AI Overviews give you a quick answer without having to click around a bunch of links, but lately there’s been some concern about where these AI Overviews are actually getting their information. A recent study by Ahrefs investigated this. According to their research, AI Overviews are more likely to cite AI-generated content than human-written content. They looked at a million search results with AI Overviews and checked out the top three links cited. Turns out, a significant amount of those links had some AI involvement.
Let’s look at what Ahrefs found. They used their own AI content detector, which is a part of their Page Inspect tool, to analyze a million URLs. The results showed that only 8.6% of the pages cited in AI Overviews were categorized as “pure human” writing. On the flip side, 3.6% were “pure AI.” The biggest chunk, a whopping 87.8%, were a mix of both. And within that mix, 7.9% had “dominant AI use,” meaning 71-99% of the page content was likely AI-generated.
Ahrefs’ earlier research on new pages across the internet found that only 2.5% were “pure AI” and 25.8% were “pure human.” So, AI Overviews are definitely leaning on AI-assisted content more than the general web does.
Is Google accidentally creating this sort of feedback loop where AI is just feeding off other AI? Some call this the “ouroboros problem,” like the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail. The AI is training on its own output, which could, perhaps, lead to some unexpected results down the line.
AI Overviews and AI Content
This really shows where the internet is headed. Lots of content creators are using AI to help them out. The Ahrefs study mentions that in their survey of 879 marketers, 87% use AI to create content. It makes sense that if more and more content on the web is AI-assisted, then AI Overviews are going to pick it up.
This brings up a few interesting points. First, it highlights the constant evolution of search engines and how they try to give us the best info. Second, it shows how important it is to have human-written content that stands out. While AI can be a helpful tool, there’s still something special about content that comes from a real person’s brain, with their unique ideas and experiences. That human touch is tough for AI to truly replicate.
AI content detectors, like the one Ahrefs used, try to figure out if text was written by a human or a machine. They look for patterns, how predictable the words are, and how varied the sentence lengths and structures are (“burstiness”). Human writing tends to have higher perplexity and more burstiness, meaning it’s less predictable and has a more natural flow, with a mix of short, punchy sentences and longer, more detailed ones. AI, on the other hand, can sometimes feel a bit too uniform. You can learn more about how these detectors work from sites like Grammarly or QuillBot.
Making Your Content Stand Out
For businesses and creators, this means focusing on quality and authenticity is more crucial than ever. You want your content to be so good, so human, that it naturally rises above the noise, no matter how many AI Overviews are floating around. This is where solid SEO and GEO strategies come into play. Check out our article on GEO best practices to learn how to make your content stand out. It’s about creating genuinely helpful, engaging, and unique content that resonates with real people, not just keywords.
Final Thoughts
This situation with AI Overviews and cited content is definitely something to be aware of. At Sandhill Digital, we’re always keeping an eye on these kinds of shifts. We get that the digital landscape never sits still, and we’re all about helping businesses adapt. If you’d like help growing your business, contact us today for a free strategy consultation, or explore our paid social services and our SEO services to see how we can accelerate your results across platforms.