Stanford researchers found that 35% of new websites created since 2022 are AI-generated or AI-assisted. The Internet Archive data shows the web transformed in three years after ChatGPT’s launch from zero AI content to more than one-third. We’re seeing the fastest shift in internet composition since the web began.
The study confirms what I predicted when I gave November 30, 2022 a name: The C/G Boundary (or curation/generation boundary). We are 3 ½ years post the C/G Boundary, which we can call the Generative Era (GE). By 1 GE, no content could be guaranteed to be original; at almost 4 GE, it is less and less likely that you are seeing purely human-created work.
According to the study, AI text is making the web more positive and less verbose. If your competitors are flooding search results with optimized AI content, your human-written material needs to deliver genuine value that machines cannot replicate. This is harder to define than you think it is.
The speed surprises even researchers studying the phenomenon: “After decades of humans shaping it,” Stanford’s Jonáš Doležal told 404 Media, “a significant portion of the internet has become defined by AI in just three years.” The transformation happened faster than the original web buildout.
Researchers may have been surprised, but no one who creates content for a living should be.
Every company needs a Claw strategy. Do you have one?
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.