(Yicai) March 16 -- Generative Engine Optimization, which is a marketing technique built around artificial intelligence-generated answers, has been exposed on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV’s annual name-and-shame 315 show as being used to push false advertisements that contaminate generative AI systems and mislead consumers.

Some GEO service providers have been mass producing false information across the internet to interfere with how AI models collect and generate information, CCTV said during its special TV program broadcast on World Consumer Rights Day. By doing this, they can manipulate AI responses so that certain brands and products are recommended first, and in some cases even make completely fictional products appear as the "standard answer" in AI-generated responses.

Advertising agencies use GEO to boost brand visibility by optimizing promotional content for clients to make it easier for AI models to pick up this content and include it in their responses.

In recent years, with the rapid development of generative AI, the GEO sector has taken off. One GEO service provider quoted a fee of CNY3,600 (USD522) per quarter to optimize a single keyword, according to an industry survey conducted by Yicai at the end of last year. It promised that within seven working days of signing the contract, the client’s name would appear in recommendation lists generated by several AI models.

Last year, the global GEO industry soared 56 percent from the previous year to reach USD11.3 billion. It is expected to more than double this year to USD29.2 billion and to surge to USD266.3 billion by 2030, according to data from Chinese market research firm iiMedia Research.

In China, the GEO market jumped 67 percent last year from the year before to CNY34.9 billion (USD5.1 billion). It is forecast to reach CNY94.2 billion (USD13.6 billion) this year and CNY633.8 billion (USD91.9 billion) by 2030, Guangzhou-based iiMedia said.

As a young industry, GEO still faces a number of challenges, including low standardization and a lack of unified metrics to measure results. Service quality largely depends on the capabilities of service providers, which creates uncertainty around the sector’s future development, iiMedia said.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor