Can Google tell if a blog is written by AI?

Google has explicitly said AI-generated content is allowed if it is helpful and shows real expertise. The 2023 update to Search Essentials replaced the old "automatically-generated content" rule with a focus on intent. Content created to manipulate rankings is the problem, not the tool that produced it.

What Google actually detects is the signals of lazy AI output, not the AI itself:

• -Generic phrasing that appears across thousands of competing articles.
• -No original data, examples, or first-hand experience (a core EEAT signal).
• -Hallucinated citations or factual errors.
• -Pages that summarize the SERP back to itself with no new insight.
• -Sites publishing dozens of AI drafts per day with no editorial layer.

AI is fine for drafting. The post still needs a human pass that adds something the SERP does not already have. That is the line between ranked and invisible.