New study finds AI-generated articles have surpassed human-generated content on the web
Source: Graphite
A new study by SEO firm Graphite, which analyzed 65,000 English-language articles from web archive Common Crawl, found that over 50% of all online articles were AI-generated by May 2025 — up from 39% a year after ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Growth has plateaued, however, likely because AI-made articles often underperform in search rankings despite their volume.
AI now writes like humans. Early tools produced rigid, formulaic text, but modern large language models generate nuanced, stylistically diverse content, often rivaling human writing in clarity and engagement. Graphite used an AI detection algorithm, which they claim achieved 99.4% accuracy, and excluded human-edited drafts, suggesting AI’s real influence may be even higher. (Note: these are Graphite’s claims and not independently verified).
Visibility remains limited. Despite dominating publishing numbers, most AI-generated articles don’t appear in Google or ChatGPT search results. Graphite’s research shows that 86% of top Google-ranking articles were human-written, compared to just 14% AI-generated. Similarly, 82% of articles cited by AI chatbots were human-written, compared to 18% AI-created.
Human-generated content is becoming rarer. The rise of AI content is reshaping digital ecosystems, raising critical questions about authenticity, originality, and credibility. The web may still be accessible to humans in the future, but the balance of influence is clearly shifting towards machines.
via Superhuman