Google on Friday held the Google Search Central Live event in Tokyo, they do this event around the world and Google’s last stop was Tokyo. The topic, at least from the tweets I saw, was around AI and search – which I guess surprises no one.

Kenichi Suzuki was on the ground tweeting live coverage from the event and based on his tweets, it seems like the Googlers who spoke reiterated the AI content guidance from earlier this year. He also published a detailed blog post, in Japanese, on what he learned from the event, it is worth translating and reading.

In short, Google is okay with AI content has long as it is for written for humans and you convey in the content the “who, how and why.”

Here are some tweets from Kenichi:

(1) It is about if the content is quality and not about who or how that content was created:

When it comes to AI, quality is more important than how content is created. #SearchCentralLive
via Cherry

— Kenichi Suzuki💫鈴木謙一 (@suzukik) June 16, 2023

Yep, is not about how the content was created but if the content is quality or not. Both humans and AI can create poor quality content, and they both can create high quality content.

And another quote from Google explaining that it’s more about quality and not that it’s simply created by AI. Like I’ve explained before, Google is ok with AI content… just not *low-quality* AI content. https://t.co/pleZScjJhj

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 17, 2023

ML based ranking algorithms and signals are trained on content by humans for humans.
They “understand” and promote natural content better.
#SearchCentralLive@methode pic.twitter.com/jNsPIZ5vGa

— Kenichi Suzuki💫鈴木謙一 (@suzukik) June 16, 2023

Another quote saying who wrote the content does not matter:

Q. Does Google annotate AI-generated content (internally)?
A. No. It doesn’t matter who created the content, but the quality of the content does. #SearchCentralLive @methode

— Kenichi Suzuki💫鈴木謙一 (@suzukik) June 16, 2023

(2) Google has algorithms to understand if the content was created for humans, i.e. the helpful content update.

ML based ranking algorithms and signals are trained on content by humans for humans.
They “understand” and promote natural content better.
#SearchCentralLive@methode pic.twitter.com/jNsPIZ5vGa

— Kenichi Suzuki💫鈴木謙一 (@suzukik) June 16, 2023

Google knows if content is written by humans for humans. So if you use AI to write content, even if it is quality, Google might know if AI / machines wrote that content. Google’s machine learning trains itself on content written by humans for humans. Can AI look like it is written by humans?

Some interesting tweets from @suzukik from Search Central Live in Tokyo. E.g. Machine learning algorithms and signals are trained on content by humans for humans. https://t.co/HqKOIYmwI2

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 17, 2023

(3) Why its hard for Google to talk about AI (although, it doesn’t seem hard for Google to talk about it to me…)

AI is a hard topic to talk about because it’s still in the experimental stage. #SearchCentralLive @me pic.twitter.com/YLncO2pjxu

— Kenichi Suzuki💫鈴木謙一 (@suzukik) June 16, 2023

(4) More to come from Google Bard:

Bard will be in the experimental stage for a few more months or a quarter. Interesting features will come. #SearchCentralLive@methode

— Kenichi Suzuki💫鈴木謙一 (@suzukik) June 16, 2023

(5) Some photos from the event:

And we’re off to a good start with @piropiroanna explaining all the things and @jumpingknee, our beloved MC, charming the audience! pic.twitter.com/WWGHWDFwFR

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) June 16, 2023

Cherry from the Search Relations telling us everything about what’s new in Google Search! Maybe something about tsukemen? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/h1pSInefCP

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) June 16, 2023

Not from the event, but typical Gary photo:

4年ぶりのグーグル検索のイベント、楽しかった！ホストの皆さんお疲れ様でした！退職したにも関わらず司会者として声かけて頂き感謝です。多くの懐かしい方々、そして新しい方とも会えて楽しかったです。お顔見えたけど話せなかった方も沢山。また何かの機会にお会いしましょう！#SearchCentralLive pic.twitter.com/D4525r9r97

— Takeaki Kanaya ★ 金谷 武明 (@jumpingknee) June 16, 2023

Forum discussion at tweets above.