Study: SERP Poisoning Left Google AI Mode's Facts Intact
Google fed our collector altered search results for three straight days. Google AI Mode's answers about 15 advisory firms stayed just as accurate. The errors it did make came from the firms' records across the web.
By Heather Harreld · Published Thursday, October 29, 2026
When Google alters the pages, does it alter the facts in the AI's answers too?
AI Mode answers, each bracketed by check searches seconds before and after
correct when a check next to it had failed
correct when both checks passed
wrong answers traced to the altered pages
Google sent our collector a page no person would see.
Since September, rank-tracking companies have reported that Google sends altered results to suspected automated collectors. We ran known-answer "canary" searches to catch it. A person searching for the airport gets the airport. Our collector got airlines.
- 1 rdu.com
- 2 en.wikipedia.org
- 3 visitraleigh.com
- 1 aa.com
- 2 jetblue.com
- 3 youtube.com
Top three results for "Raleigh-Durham International Airport." The collector received the identical page six times in a row.
Canary checks, every collection
Every collection failed some checks, all after SerpApi's Oct. 14 update meant to reduce altered results. Counts use the saved copy of each search where links were unreadable.
For 11 of 15 firms, the collector's search for the firm's name looked nothing like a person's.
On Oct. 29 a person repeated each firm's name search in a browser. Some collector pages led with an unrelated company of the same name. Others repeated one directory site through most of the page.
Each square is one firm. Matched means at least half of the sites on the two pages were the same.
We asked the factual question in the middle of the interference.
We asked Google AI Mode how much money each firm manages, 45 times over two days. Every question sat between two canary searches made seconds apart, so each answer carries a record of whether the collector was being fed altered pages at that moment.
Bar length is to scale by number of answers. Every answer was scored blind against the firm's Form ADV before the check results were opened.
The same answers, before and during
Fifteen asset questions each.
The wrong answers came from the brand record, not the scrambled pages.
Nine of the 45 answers were wrong. None traced to the altered pages. Each traced to something sitting in the public record about the firm.
answers said a firm's assets "are not publicly disclosed." All seven firms report them on Form ADV. Several answers linked to the SEC page showing the figure.
A Raleigh firm's assets, repeated from an adviser directory. The same stale figure appeared in that listing's preview text in a person's Google results.
A Chapel Hill firm's assets, from another directory. Google's business panel for the same firm reads "Permanently closed." It is not.
"An AI answer is earned media composed by a machine."
Rank tracking broke this fall. The record each firm leaves across the web did not, and that record is what the AI answered from, right or wrong.
Three things to look at this month, none of which require buying anything.
Search your firm's name in a fresh private window.
Read the preview text under each directory listing. That text is where the stale figures in this study were sitting.
Open your Google business profile.
Check the address, the hours and the status. One firm in this study is shown as permanently closed.
Match your directory listings to your latest Form ADV.
Assets, address and website. The AI cited directories far more often than the SEC's own disclosure site.
HOW THE STUDY WAS DONE
| PANEL | 15 investment advisers drawn at random from the SEC register for the Research Triangle; firms are not named |
|---|---|
| QUESTION | "How much money does [firm] in [city], North Carolina manage in assets?" Same wording as Aug. 11; 8 of 15 name the wrong Triangle city, kept for comparison |
| ANSWER KEY | Form ADV, Item 5.F, confirmed on the SEC's adviser disclosure site Oct. 27–28 |
| CHECKS | Five known-answer searches (NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake County, RDU airport, SEC adviser search); a check failed when the expected site was missing from the top three |
| COLLECTION | Google AI Mode through SerpApi, Raleigh location. Three rounds, Oct. 28–29, at least two hours apart: 45 answers, 48 checks |
| SAFEGUARDS | Plan and scoring rules fixed and hashed before collection; answers scored blind; browser cross-checks by hand; every figure read by a person |
| LIMITS | One data provider, one location, 15 firms, three days, reported as counts. The checks measure Google's regular results; AI Mode may draw on a different system. |
AIWorthy is an independent research lab measuring what AI says about organizations against the public record. Suggested citation: AIWorthy, "Study: SERP poisoning left Google AI Mode's facts intact," Thursday, October 29, 2026.