Thomas Unise
Recipe creators are facing a serious threat to their business model as AI chatbots increasingly scrape and repurpose their content, diverting traffic and ad revenue away from food blogs that traditionally relied on these metrics for survival.
How AI Is Impacting Recipe Creators
Google’s AI tools, particularly its AI Overviews and more recently its AI Mode for search, have been identified as major contributors to the problem. Since Google launched AI Mode in March, recipe creators have reported significant drops in website traffic.
The AI-generated recipes often combine content from multiple sources without attribution, creating problematic mashups that may not even work properly. In one notorious example, Google’s AI recommended putting glue on pizza after misinterpreting a joke from Reddit.
Key Concerns for Content Creators
- Traffic diversion: Clicks that would normally go to food blogs are being captured by AI chatbots
- Revenue loss: Fewer visitors means reduced ad revenue for content creators
- Quality issues: AI-generated recipes often combine incompatible elements from different sources
- Lack of attribution: Original creators receive no credit or compensation
Industry Perspectives
Jim Delmage, who runs the Sip and Feast blog with his wife Tara, noted that many in the industry are afraid to speak up despite the threat to their livelihoods. Matt Rodbard, founder of Taste website, offered a more dire assessment, calling the situation “an extinction event” for websites dependent on advertising.
Karen Tedesco of Familystyle Food tested Google’s AI Mode by searching for “Italian meatballs” and received a synthesized recipe that inappropriately combined her content with nine other sources, including a recipe for Greek (not Italian) meatballs.
Self-Reflection in the Industry
Rodbard acknowledged that food blogs share some responsibility for their predicament, having created poor user experiences with excessive ads and pop-ups. He suggested that traditional cookbooks might see renewed interest as a result of these developments.
The situation highlights the broader challenges content creators face in the age of AI aggregation, where original work can be repurposed without compensation or proper attribution.
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