AI sites with incorrect facts push game wikis down in search

A writer found that an incorrect Nighthawks Wiki came from Spaceship, a company that has an AI website builder. The site had companions and skills that are not in the game, and it gave only an email address for corrections. Bender says such sites fill search results for games, and the publisher must play whack-a-mole to keep its wikis in view.

How it works

AI tools make many sites that copy the shape of wikis. They target games with small groups of players, where only a small number of other help pages are available.

The numbers

FlamingMojo, a volunteer wiki editor, found five or more AI sites for the game Wardogs in the days after its release in September. In 30 days, AI crawlers (tools that copy web pages) sent 7m requests to the Dune Awakening Community Wiki, and Meta sent 5m of them. FlamingMojo says that server costs increased by three to ten times.

What is not known

No site owner gave an answer to the writer. Bender says that for some sites no person knows the data that they get. One site sent users to software with a subscription that the malware tool of the writer showed as potentially unsafe.

Insight: Topics with a small number of good sources are easy to fill

The incorrect wikis target games that have a small number of good pages. A study found pages that an attacker controls in 31% of answers from three AI search tools. It seems that a topic with a small number of sources is easy to fill, and AI search tools can then use the fill. A niche brand has the most risk.