No, really. That isn’t just the title of this post. Give it a try and Google “recursion”. The blog post will be waiting for you when you get back. While this may sound a bit of an odd request for a publication about general SEO curiosities…well, it’s probably best to let you see for yourself.
Welcome Back, Unless You Already Got The Joke In Which Case Glad You’re Still Here
What you saw there was a little Easter egg/in-joke put in by the developers working at Google. In case you didn’t catch it, the search engine will suggest a revised search for the exact term you just requested. When asking about ‘recursion’, it will ask if you actually meant ‘recursion’ instead. If you take the suggestion and ‘revise’ your results to search for ‘recursion’, it will search for ‘recursion’ again, and make the same suggestion.
This loop will not end. While it might offer a smile or a sensible chuckle, this also demonstrates the concept of mathematical recursion in practice. This is why, despite the increasing corporate footprint of Google, many Easter eggs remain in place to this day, as they are often as useful as they are humorous.
While this was a much sillier way to start a vocational article than you were probably expecting, it gets the point across, because recursion is a fundamental part of how algorithms and artificial intelligence actually work.
Patterns On Parade
At the core of every aspect of computing, advanced or otherwise, you will find mathematics. While we’ve increased the complexity of the formulae over the years, these magnificent machines are still extremely feature heavy calculators at their core. We’re greatly oversimplifying this, of course; covering all aspects of how this works would take an entire book or more, plus the history going into it to do it justice.
It all boils down to binary code, or simple ones and zeroes. Computers check for whether or not a switch is active or not, and then a thing happens. My apologies to every software engineer reading this, as that explanation was an act as heretical as telling a mathematician that Pi equals exactly three. Your computer is checking for patterns every moment that it has power, over and over without fail. If it cannot, something probably goes wrong.
As the internet is supported by the same computers, it essentially follows the same logic. Click this, load this. We covered the finer details of algorithm recognition in [LINK AOTC TWILIGHT ZONE IN UNDERLINE] our last AOTC entry, where search engines skim web pages for buzz words, phrases, and imagery that matches a majority of other ‘successful’ searches, and internally marks these as good searches. Good search means higher priority, irrelevant or bad search goes lower.
Where’s the AI Come In?
This is where both the concept and the Easter egg concerning recursion come in. Algorithms always follow orders if possible. They do not have the ability to create new information, only to draw from existing information. This means that, while AI can create a massive number of possible outcomes from any prompt, they are technically limited. Search engines can also be given overrides internally to perform a command with the right prompt. This ‘recursion’ joke is an example of a manual switch so that Google will always suggest ‘recursion’ when searching for ‘recursion’. It cannot deviate from this.
This also applies inversely. As all AI creations are finite and draw from limited information, there are clear giveaways when AI is involved. As such, Google can pick up when you’re trying to trick it in a sneaky way, such as intentionally repetitive text, misleading imagery, or with nonsensical keywords stuffed into the article that may or may not have anything to do with the content. While the algorithm may pick up your first attempt initially, it can quickly downgrade the result once it figures out you are ‘keyword stuffing’.
AI also has some consistent mistakes and evidence it leaves behind. In visual art, this is often more evident to the untrained eye. Hands, faces, and eyes usually are oddly shaped or missing entirely, or it may appear to be too ‘smooth’. Strange patterns with no rhyme or reason may also appear. While it is possible to cut down on this with clever prompting, it can never be eliminated entirely under the table. The same goes for written text, as AI will make mistakes that a person generally will not. One of the consistent tripping points of AI in this regard is the usage of ‘timed’ words, such as ‘firstly’ or ‘lastly’. If you see text that uses ‘lastly’ in the middle of the paragraph, it is almost certainly AI. Repetitive phrasing is also common, as it cannot deliver a true emphasis on what it is saying.
After all, how could it? AI converts pure mathematics to written language. Like the recreational use of Google Translate, fluent speakers of the translated language will often find errors or nuances that the algorithm will use incorrectly. The written word is not the first language of computing, and it will make errors. Algorithms are much better and much faster at finding these errors than human eyes.
This doesn’t guarantee that the page will receive a down ranking, but it certainly increases the possibility. While a fair number of industry members would sing the praises of AI potential, AI will always have this limitation. A person can certainly make corrections and catch when a web page drops in ranking, but AI generally will not. It will not go that extra mile for you.
What is the Best Way to Use AI?
This was touched on a fair bit in the last post, but it has to be said again: indexing only. Never rely on AI as a significant source of content creation. As all AI usage draws from an enormous, but finite pool, it is not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’ an algorithm determines AI was used in content creation. It may not always happen immediately, but it will happen.
Ask yourself this: is my business worth risking over cold mathematics? It’s a fair wager that the answer to that is a resounding ‘no’. Choose the extra mile, not the artificial.
Next time, we’ll discuss the importance of regular updates, and why you should never put these off for an extended period of time. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how often this problem comes up.
As always, thank you for choosing Tycho SEO for your cybersecurity and search engine optimization needs. See you on the next Ahead Of The Curve.
