Google’s Gary Illyes recently explained that Google’s search engine treats AI-generated images essentially the same as any other images and does not penalize sites for using AI images.

In a Q&A with interviewer Kenichi Suzuki and shared by Search Engine Journal, Illyes explained that AI-generated images have no direct impact on SEO or online rankings. 

Instead, he suggested that any effect to rankings from AI-generated issues may be brought on by technical issues. He suggested that brands may even see increased traffic if they use AI to create unique images. 

How Does Google Handle AI-Generated Content?

Google has largely been trying to take a nuanced approach to how it handles content made with AI. While the company has encouraged those who use AI-generated text content to ensure it is reviewed by humans, they have also taken steps to derank low-quality AI content.

At the same time, Google has not directly addressed how it handles AI-generated images.

About 10 minutes into the recent interview, Illyes was asked if Google would punish a site if some of their images were made with AI:

“Say if there’s a content that the content itself is legit, the sentences are legit, but also there are a lot of images which are relevant to the content itself, but all of them – let’s say all of them are generated by AI. Will the content or the overall site, is it going to be penalized or not?”

In response, Illyes emphasized that AI-generated images don’t affect SEO in any direct way.

“No, no. So AI generated image doesn’t impact the SEO. Not direct.

So obviously when you put images on your site, you will have to sacrifice some resources to those images… But otherwise you are not going to, I don’t think that you’re going to see any negative impact from that.

If anything, you might get some traffic out of image search or video search or whatever, but otherwise it should just be fine.”

In other words, the only major SEO consideration a site should have when using AI-generated content is ensuring the images are small enough and properly optimized to load quickly. 

While brands should consider other potential issues you might encounter using AI-generated images, such as how your audience will respond, Illyes’s comments make it clear that Google won’t be punishing you simply for using AI to create your graphics or pictures.