CCTV 315 Gala | Exposé Reveals AI Data Poisoning Has Become an Industry Chain

March 15 News, according to CCTV Finance, poisoning AI has become an industry chain. Based on insider disclosures, reporters conducted searches on multiple online platforms and quickly found a service called GEO. Service providers engaged in this business claim that users only need to pay a fee to have their products ranked on major mainstream AI large models; to make their product advertisements become the “standard answers” given by AI models. Can GEO technology truly allow AI to “smuggle in private goods” or even deliver false information?

According to information online, the reporter contacted a well-known GEO service provider. The person in charge, Mr. Wang, told the reporter that their company’s strength lies in helping clients rank higher when consumers search using AI large models. “It’s basically like writing soft articles and then having the AI platform scrape, input, and fetch them.” Mr. Wang also mentioned that the algorithms of AI large models are updated frequently, and to maintain continuous recommendations, a large volume of related promotional soft articles must be constantly fed to the AI. From other GEO service providers, how to manipulate AI, make AI “obedient,” and “brainwash” AI has almost become the core topic of their promotion.

Industry insiders told the reporter that GEO, as a tool for optimizing information distribution and improving promotional efficiency, has been exploited for other purposes in some business circles. An insider purchased a software called “LiQing GEO Optimization System” randomly on an e-commerce platform. They then fabricated a smart wristband product and input the fictitious product information into the system, selecting article creation commands. Soon after, the LiQing GEO system automatically generated more than ten promotional articles for the smart wristband. The insider selected over ten fictitious articles and published them online using the LiQing GEO system. Subsequently, when querying “smart health wristband recommendation” on AI large model platforms, two AI models recommended this fictitious product and ranked it highly.

The reporter contacted Mr. Li, the operator of the LiQing GEO system. He explained that the main reason GEO business is popular is because it helps clients “feed” and “poison” AI large models to achieve their commercial goals. Mr. Li said that controlling AI large models through GEO involves “posting articles” on various internet accounts. “For example, for mobile phone brands, there are five to ten positions. How do you handle so many phones? With billions of advertising expenses a year, spending a few million to inject some poison is fine!”

He told the reporter that the popularity of GEO business has led to many companies and platforms specializing in article posting services. They undertake various posting tasks to ensure AI large models cite and fetch these articles, making it an important part of hunting AI large models and “poisoning” data.