About how AI-driven spam and generative engine optimisation may break web search.
Has this happened?
Yes 12 (10%)Not sure 56 (46%)No 54 (44%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About how AI-driven spam and generative engine optimisation may break web search.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Generative engine optimisation is a separate field. Websites that are SEO aren't necessarily GEO, they're having to be reoptimized for that. One strategy is to post fake conversations onto Reddit, where one bot how to do something, and another bot says the best way is with the product being optimised.
LLMs have no connection to ground truth. It won't matter how many or how cleverly you network them to each other, they still can't tell the difference between real users saying a product is good and good spammers saying a product is good.