Yes, AI isn't entirely to blame for this - it's low quality, irrelevant and misleading content in general.
Also, we have to look at the incentives: advertisement. Somehow, this is acceptable to consumers, profitable for companies and profitable for publishers. How, is absolutely beyond me... and it won't change so long as Google has a majority in the "search"-space as they are directly profiting from this.
Good point. The standards for advertising networks has to increase tenfold, right now they reward slop, companies drain their ad budgets on channels they can’t even fully measure, and it repeats since it takes too long for companies to notice the effects.
It’s the reason advertising costs have ballooned digitally, and also the cause of many lawsuits that Google continues downplaying in the public eye.
Today's AI is not to blame for anything because those AIs lack agency. Take a good look at the theory and real-life algorithms and soon you will realize that GPTs are just better parrots. Tools that they are the blame does not lie in the tool, but in the user. Not unlike guns.
Also, we have to look at the incentives: advertisement. Somehow, this is acceptable to consumers, profitable for companies and profitable for publishers. How, is absolutely beyond me... and it won't change so long as Google has a majority in the "search"-space as they are directly profiting from this.