AI-Generated Content Surges Online Post-ChatGPT Launch
A Pew Research Center study found that over a third of webpages created after ChatGPT's debut show signs of AI authorship, with .com domains most affected.
More than a third of webpages created since the launch of ChatGPT exhibit signs of artificial intelligence authorship, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. The analysis of over half a million English-language webpages from the past five years indicated a notable increase in machine-generated text following ChatGPT's release in November 2022.
Researchers utilized an AI detection tool named Open Pangram to examine a sample of 10,000 webpages collected in July 2026. While 10% of all pages analyzed showed signs of AI authorship, this figure rose sharply for pages published after ChatGPT's debut. The study found that 35% of post-ChatGPT webpages displayed characteristics of AI writing, aligning with other research suggesting AI's growing influence on the internet.
This trend has reportedly accelerated with the introduction of other popular chatbots, including Claude and Gemini. AI-generated text appears less frequently on academic (.edu) and government (.gov) domains, being most prevalent on commercial (.com) sites.
According to the researchers, AI detection models, while not infallible, can identify patterns common in machine-generated writing, such as specific word choices, phrases, and punctuation.
The study's findings coincide with other reports indicating the increasing integration of AI chatbots into daily life. A separate Pew Research Center study released in June revealed that over half of U.S. adults now use chatbots, with approximately 38% of employed adults using them for work. Statistics also suggest that younger adults, under the age of 30, express more caution regarding AI's potential negative societal impacts compared to older demographics.