Before we knew how to utilize the internet to promote our brands, the Internet felt like a looming threat over the marketing tools that we had known before. The advent of AI platforms feels like a second Internet renaissance that social media marketers must accept into their arsenal of SEO tools, or they will fall behind.

Josh Bachynski, host of the SEO + AI Show, feels that the future isn’t bleak, but it isn’t bright either. SEO is one of the most affected industries by AI and is already using its algorithms to generate content, keywords, and so much more. Google is not new to this strategy; their engineers have been working on AI for over a decade. They are also familiar with shifting their morals to fit the newest business strategies. Once upon a time, they promised to never use paid SEO to give willing sites more visibility. Today, the top returns of any search are marked as ‘sponsored’.

What’s worse is when the faces of the tech world show mock concern for the public when they are willing to push the limits of AI for their personal gain. Elon Musk, for example, has said that once AI becomes a potential public risk it should be regulated. He even signed a letter in support of monitoring AI. In reality, this was just to slow down OpenAI, and he released his own AI technology shortly after.

The reality is that AI cannot be regulated. It will never be able to take over the internet like in a Sci-Fi movie, but it is a tool whose limits are up to the individual user. The only way to prevent it from using our personal data to get us to spend more money is through regulating corporations. All in all, AI can provide huge benefits to SEO if you use it cleverly. Its purpose and morality is determined through individual choices, and that has been an unsolvable issue for as long as humans have been around.