Google AI Reporting on Fake Core Update News Reports

[foxyalicia]

See my screenshot here: [imgur.com...]

I'm asking about Google AI results...but also about how Google is reporting fake news about Google...but also about why websites are offering fake stories about Google.

Why are websites offering fake news stories about core updates that don't exist? Are they simply placeholding, so in case Google does release a core update in January, they'll already be #1 in results? If so, why does Google keep listing these fake news sites at the top of results?

Why would a site post a story like this? Sure, I can understand the placeholder scenario. But as someone who googles this stuff, it ensures that the site is one I'd never click on nor trust because I follow SEO enough to know there's volatility but no official update since December. And as far as I know, not even SEO experts have narrowed down what type of content is moving up or down in SERP.

Is this designed to drive me insane? This is Google's own AI giving me detailed information about the "Authenticity Update" that started January 14, even though Google's own list of core updates doesn't include it, nor has any SEO expert I follow mentioned it. Yet Google's own AI is describing it in detail! And although I don't follow her, Lily Ray is purportedly an expert and she's saying that the update is real and official (though it's hard to tell since she also includes a bad joke).

What's an average publisher like me expected to believe?

[lilyraynyc]

Hi. Lily here. There was no core update. This was part of an experiment I am doing about influencing AI search. The article with the results will be out soon. And the article with the "Fake news" on my site has since been noindexed. Sorry for the confusion!

[Brett_Tabke]

Way Cool (and welcome to the forum Lilyraynyc!

Nice catch FoxyAlicia!

[tangor]

An experiment? You mean we can't TRUST g AI?

What are we gonna do?*

^{*The Sky Is Falling --- Sir Ciken Lytle}

[Whitey]

@lilyraynyc - looking forward to your findings, and thanks for the heads up.

So:

No core update existed

The AI hallucinated it convincingly

The experiment worked

AI search is manipulable

Verification is now your job again :)

AI search rewards plausibility, not truth - so strategy must be grounded in factual data, not stories.

[Taran]

Many sites publish speculative update articles because the moment volatility starts people search for things like “Google core update January” or “ranking drop update”, so publishers try to capture that traffic early and update the page later if something real appears, which is why you often see titles that sound definitive even when no update was confirmed, and Google still ranks them because the query intent is informational and those pages technically match the keywords even if the claims are weak, so the safest approach is to rely only on confirmed sources like the official Google Search Status dashboard or direct statements from Google Search Central rather than assuming every SERP article reflects an actual update.