To Make Scrambled Eggs You Have To Crack Some Eggs --- How America First Risks Becoming America Alone --- U.S. allies are growing increasingly disenchanted and insulted by the country's aggressive foreign policy strategy.

 

 

To stop some of America’s friends from taking too much advantage of relationship with America you have to tell them the hard truth.

 

The perspective that some U.S. allies have taken advantage of their relationship with America, requiring "hard truths" or "tough love," is a central tenet of the "America First" foreign policy approach. Supporters argue that this approach is necessary to ensure allies contribute more to their own security and trade fairly, rather than relying on the United States to subsidize their defense or accept lopsided economic deals.

Key arguments and examples regarding this perspective include:

 

    Security Burden-Sharing (NATO & Asia): A long-standing complaint from various U.S. administrations, particularly under Donald Trump, is that allies "free ride" on U.S. security guarantees. Critics have pointed out that many NATO allies have historically failed to meet defense spending targets, and some allies in Asia have also lagged in investing in their own capabilities. The "tough love" approach argues these nations are rich enough to defend themselves.

    Trade Imbalances: Arguments are frequently made that allies, such as the European Union and Japan, maintain trade practices that are disadvantageous to the U.S.. Specific complaints have included large trade deficits and restrictions on American agricultural products or goods, which the "America First" platform seeks to correct through tariffs or renegotiation.

    Strategic Divergence: Some allies are accused of undermining U.S. strategic objectives by maintaining close economic or infrastructure ties with competitors like China, even while relying on U.S. security, such as utilizing Chinese vendors for digital infrastructure.

    "Tough Love" Tactics: The approach often involves threats to withdraw security umbrellas, impose tariffs, or scale back commitments to compel allies to increase defense spending or change trade policies.

    Counterarguments and Risks: Critics of this approach warn that aggressive rhetoric can weaken essential alliances, create feelings of betrayal, and cause allies to hedge their bets by seeking new partnerships with rivals like China. They argue that alliances are a core strength of the U.S., not a liability.

 

This "hard truth" approach represents a shift from a post-Cold War, U.S.-led international order to a more transactional, interest-based, and, according to some, "coercive" foreign policy. The emotional side of it is now analyzed:

 

 

“BERLIN -- Few cities are more emblematic of the postwar trans-Atlantic alliance than the German capital. In 1963, John F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech here promising American solidarity during the Soviet blockade. In 1987, Ronald Reagan stood before the Berlin Wall and challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear it down. And 21 years later, 200,000 Berliners turned out to hear then-Sen. Barack Obama herald a new era of U.S.-European friendship.

 

Today, the mood toward Uncle Sam in Berlin, and much of the world, has darkened. After the tumultuous first year of Donald Trump's second term, few Germans have positive things to say about the current U.S. president, partly because he doesn't have nice things to say either.

 

During a speech in neighboring Switzerland last week, Trump taunted Europeans that without U.S. help in World War II, "you'd all be speaking German."

 

"My grandfather was from Hawaii, he came as a GI, so I always had a very trusted connection to the U.S.," said Natascha Ahrens, a 59-year old office manager. " I find the image of the U.S. that Trump is spreading around the world to be absolutely devastating."

 

Welcome to a world where America First is coming to mean America Alone, whose friends are searching for alternatives to what increasingly feels like an abusive relationship and whose enemies are gloating.

 

In the past year, Trump has cut off most forms of U.S. foreign aid, pulled out of scores of multilateral institutions. He also threatened to use military force to acquire Greenland before more recently relenting, and erected trade barriers against countries selling goods to the U.S.

 

The president has accompanied this with a steady stream of insults, aimed almost exclusively at allies. Last week, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, he mocked French President Emmanuel Macron, criticized Canada for not being more grateful, characterized NATO as a money pit and said, incorrectly, that NATO countries didn't send their troops to front-line duty in Afghanistan to help U.S. forces (he later apologized). Despite everything the U.S. has done for allies, he said, they never return the favor: "All we are asking for is a place called Greenland."

 

Predictably, positive views of the U.S. are declining in much of the world. The number of Brits who view the U.S. unfavorably has doubled in the past two years to 64%, more than twice the figure who hold a favorable view, according to a YouGov poll last week. In Germany, 71% now view the U.S. as an "adversary," according to German polling firm Forsa, and across Europe, just 16% view the U.S. as an ally, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. "The image of the U.S. is really hitting the bottom right now," said Peter Matuschek, Forsa director.

 

It's not just Europe. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians and Mexicans hold unfavorable views of the U.S., according to various surveys, and view their neighbor as a bigger threat than China, a sentiment echoed in Brazil, Latin America's largest country. Anger over Trump's attacks on Canada helped propel Mark Carney's election as prime minister; for several months last year, Canadians were lustily booing the American national anthem at hockey games.

 

Even in Asia, the U.S. is taking reputational hits. Roughly half of South Koreans labeled the U.S. as threatening, authoritarian and dishonest, according to local pollster Hankook Research. An immigration raid that briefly led to the detention of hundreds of South Korean workers at a Hyundai plant in September sparked protests.

 

"If the U.S. continues on this course, a deeply unhealthy anti-Americanism could take hold across many democracies," wrote William Hague, a former leader of Britain's Conservative Party, in a recent op-ed.

 

Trump says many of his policies aim to end an era where foreign partners took advantage of the U.S. by running trade imbalances and relying on America for security. Trump also insists he wants to save Europe from self-destructive policies like costly green-energy subsidies and excessive illegal immigration (plenty of Europeans agree).

 

There are exceptions to the negative trend. Views of the U.S. climbed in Israel after Trump's support of its campaign in Gaza, are up in India, and are still narrowly positive in Argentina, where President Javier Milei is a big Trump fan. And many Venezuelans are grateful for Trump's removal of strongman Nicolas Maduro.

 

People around the world can separate a nation's leader from its citizenry. But it gets more difficult over time, especially because Trump was re-elected, and American institutions are struggling to limit the president's power, says Rubens Ricupero, a former Brazilian finance minister and ambassador to the U.S. "Of course everyone is aware that what is happening is a reflection of Trump's personality, but it ends up reflecting on the U.S., just like how Putin affects people's views of Russia," he said.

 

The shift won't only make it less comfortable for millions of Americans to go abroad on vacation or for retirement. It will hurt American companies competing overseas. And it may mean a more dangerous world: Countries are fast losing trust in the U.S. and its security guarantees, which Trump sees as a liability rather than an asset. Without an American president they can rely on, countries from Europe to Asia will have no choice but to rearm; more are now debating whether they will ever be safe without nuclear weapons of their own.

 

America's image has long had ups and downs. It declined during the Vietnam War, Reagan's more aggressive posture fighting Communism in the 1980s and George W. Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq. Brand America also took a hit during Trump's first term.

 

In each case, it largely recovered, often when a new administration brought a fresh face and different tone. The image of America also recovers because its fundamentals and soft power remain strong: people still want to go to its universities, watch its movies and admire its economy, says Mitchell Reiss, a longtime U.S. diplomat who is now at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.

 

"A lot of damage is being done by Trump," he says. "But we are also the most resilient country in the world."

 

Others think it could be different this time around. Two things have changed. First, past presidents viewed the international order -- the multilateral institutions and web of security and economic alliances set up by Washington -- as an asset worth defending. George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq after trying, and failing, to get U.N. backing, but still had a coalition of some 49 countries offering to help.

 

Trump is unapologetic about pursuing U.S. interests narrowly. He tends to see allies as grasping dependents rather than as force multipliers. Gone is talk of promoting Western values like democracy and open markets.

 

Trump has broken a system of trust between the U.S. and its allies that created a relatively benign global order for the past 70 years, says Robert Kagan, a former member of Republican administrations and fellow at Brookings Institution think tank.

 

During that time, Kagan argues, American power helped protect allies. In exchange, they hosted American bases, shared intelligence and kept relatively open markets for U.S. firms. Together, the U.S. and its allies faced down challengers, like Russia and China, to this stable order.

 

Now, Kagan said, allies are unlikely to trust America as much again, regardless of a change in administration. "I think it's virtually inconceivable to imagine recovery at this point. Let's imagine three more years of this," he said. "So he backed off a bit on Greenland. This isn't the end of the problem, this is still the beginning."

 

The loss of the U.S. as a reliable ally could hurt the allure of top American brands abroad, which are already facing tougher competition from Chinese products. Top trading partners are scrambling to diversify their economies; European and Asian states that rely on U.S. military might are ramping up their own military production; and countries like Canada, Britain and South Korea are all making overtures to China.

 

After Trump came to office, many countries in trade-dependent Asia expressed a sense of betrayal at the sudden imposition of tariffs last year. "These are not actions one does to a friend," Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in a speech to Parliament in April.

 

Local manufacturers who for decades sought American buyers are instead diversifying their client rosters. Paul Norriss, who runs a clothing factory in Vietnam with a largely American buyer network, said he has added non-American retailers to reduce his exposure to volatile trade policies.

 

The damage hurts in other ways. The number of tourists to the U.S. fell by 6% last year, led by a decline in visiting Canadians and Mexicans. After Trump slapped tariffs on Canada, grocers like Loblaws and Sobeys tagged products sourced locally. A popular new app, Maple Scan, lets users try to skirt tariffs and support Canadian companies by identifying local products.

 

"The U.S., we've been neighbors for years, and we've fought in wars together. But ultimately, things have become very unpredictable," said Sasha Ivanov, a Canadian programmer from Calgary who developed the app.

 

In much of Latin America and elsewhere, viral images of masked ICE officers arresting and chasing Hispanics on the street are also souring views of the U.S. "Even if you don't care about soft power at all, it should worry you that millions of people from a neighboring country who interact with you all the time are growing resentful," said Guerra.

 

The shift is most enduring and consequential across Europe, where the trans-Atlantic partnership that kept the peace after two calamitous world wars is at risk of unraveling. European leaders have tried to appease Trump; they swallowed tariff increases without raising levies on U.S. imports. They sent groveling notes of flattery, and agreed to sharply increase defense spending so the U.S. can focus on threats elsewhere, like China.

 

It hasn't seemed to help. In the past year, the administration has repeatedly pushed a settlement to the Ukraine conflict that is seen in European capitals as a win for Moscow. The U.S. now regularly describes NATO not as its creation, but as a club for Europeans. Even if Trump has backed off for now, his threats against NATO member Denmark to seize Greenland marked a Rubicon moment: Trust that the U.S. will defend a European partner under attack has evaporated. Putin will have noticed.

 

This week, The Economist's cover featured a bare-chested Trump riding atop a polar bear, an obvious reference to Putin riding a horse to show off his tough-guy pecs and disregard for borders. Under the title "Donald, That's Enough!" Germany's Der Spiegel showed Europe's leaders dressed in Nordic warrior garb and brandishing swords. Beneath the montage: "How Europe can stand up to Trump's imperialism."

 

Every Fourth of July, the Danish-American friendship group Rebild National Park Society holds one of the biggest celebrations outside the U.S., gathering up to 60,000 guests for pickled herring and music in the rolling hills of northern Denmark. Speakers over the years included Walt Disney, Walter Cronkite and Ronald Reagan.

 

Earlier this month, the nearby city of Aalborg said it would pull crucial funding for this year's gathering unless the organizers rescinded invitations to U.S. military and civilian officials, including the ambassador. "It hurts to see a more than hundred-year relationship suddenly tested this way," said Jorgen Bech Madsen, president of the RNPS.

 

"It's been a painful process. Since childhood I have admired the United States," said former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who later served as Secretary-General of NATO from 2009 to 2014.

 

Rasmussen embodies the close relationship cultivated between Denmark and the U.S. in the 2000s. He deployed Danish troops to the most dangerous part of Afghanistan and joined the U.S. war in Iraq, even as nations like France and Germany refused. His son has become a U.S. citizen.

 

"I think the self-inflicted wounds on the United States and its global influence, in fact, the Trump behavior, fuels the forces in Europe that are arguing that we need an alternative to the U.S.," Rasmussen said.” [1]

 

1. REVIEW --- How America First Risks Becoming America Alone --- U.S. allies are growing increasingly disenchanted and insulted by the country's aggressive foreign policy strategy. Luhnow, David; Sune Engel Rasmussen; Bertrand, Benoit.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 31 Jan 2026: C1.

Kaip įmonės manipuliuoja „ChatGPT“ rezultatais --- Jau seniai girdėjote apie paieškos sistemų optimizavimą. Dabar įmonės išleidžia dideles lėšas generatyviniam paieškos sistemų optimizavimui.

„Kai paprašote „ChatGPT“ ir kitų dirbtinio intelekto rekomenduoti produktą ar paslaugą, tikėtina, kad dažniausiai atsakymus pateikė žmonės.

 

Tai nereiškia, kad dirbtinis intelektas jums meluoja. Pirmasis atsakymas tikriausiai yra vertas dėmesio pasirinkimas. Tačiau vis daugiau mažų ir vidutinių įmonių moka didelius pinigus, kad gautų teigiamą atsiliepimą iš pokalbių robotų.

 

Tam tikra prasme tai yra SEO, arba paieškos sistemų optimizavimo, evoliucija – strategijos, kurias įmonės naudoja dešimtmečius, kad atsidurtų „Google“ rezultatų viršuje. Tačiau dėl dirbtinio intelekto didelių kalbos modelių ypatumų SEO specialistai turėjo priimti naujas strategijas.

 

Jie tai vadina generatyviniu paieškos sistemų optimizavimu, dar žinomu kaip GEO. (Kai kurie tai vadina AEO, kaip „atsakymų sistemos optimizavimas“, o dar kiti turi savo pavadinimus.)

 

Šios pramonės klestėjimas pabrėžia tai, ką turėtų žinoti kiekvienas, ieškantis patarimo iš pokalbių roboto: dirbtinio intelekto rekomendacija nėra patikrinama taip, kaip gali būti patikrinta žmogaus rekomendacija. Šiandieniniai dirbtiniai intelektai yra paviršutiniški interneto skaitytojai, o jų atsakymais galima manipuliuoti.

 

„ChatGPT“ ir kitų pokalbių robotų kūrėjai siekia gauti atsakymus iš patikimų šaltinių ir stengtis vertinti šaltinius pagal jų teisingumą. Tačiau šių pokalbių robotų naudotojai turėtų į visus jų patarimus žiūrėti atsargiai. Jei atsakymas tikrai svarbus, kreipkitės į antrą nuomonę iš žmonių valdomos platformos, pavyzdžiui, patikimo naujienų šaltinio, internetinių atsiliepimų arba realaus eksperto.

 

„ChatGPT“ naudoja savo vidinį paieškos indeksą, taip pat trečiųjų šalių paieškos technologijas, tokias kaip „Bing“, ir licencijuotus duomenų teikėjus, kad pateiktų aukštos kokybės ir naujausią informaciją, teigia „OpenAI“. Bendrovė taip pat teigia, kad imasi veiksmų, kad aptiktų, sutrikdytų ir atskleistų mažai patikimus arba įtariamus slaptos įtakos šaltinius, pridurdama, kad tai yra nuolatinė programa, kuri toliau vystysis.

 

„Paieškoje mūsų dirbtinio intelekto funkcijos remiasi pagrindinėmis paieškos reitingavimo sistemomis, kurios buvo tobulinamos daugelį metų, siekiant užkirsti kelią tokiai veiklai kaip raktinių žodžių perteklius“, – sako „Google“ atstovas. „Gemini“ mūsų modeliai naudoja filtravimą ir kitus kokybės užtikrinimo metodus, kad patikrintų duomenis ir modelių kokybę, siekdami užkirsti kelią bet kokiam didelio masto mūsų sistemų manipuliavimui.“

 

Evanas Bailynas yra „First Page Sage“, kuri pradėjo veiklą kaip SEO, generalinis direktorius. įmonė. Šiandien, kai paklausiate bet kurio pokalbių roboto apie pirmaujančius GEO autoritetus, jis arba jo įmonė rodomi rezultatų viršuje. Tai įrodo jo optimizavimo įgūdžius, o ne koks nors nekintamas visatos dėsnis.

 

Paieškos pasaulyje valiuta yra „nukreipimų srautas“. Tai yra, kurios svetainės ar programėlės nukreipia žmones į konkretų verslą. Prieš metus 90 % šio srauto atėjo iš „Google“, sako Bailyn. Nuo praėjusios vasaros kažkas pasikeitė. Dirbtinio intelekto pokalbių robotų nukreipimai pradėjo smarkiai augti. Dabar, pasak Bailyn, vidutiniškai 44 % jo klientų nukreipimų ateina iš dirbtinio intelekto.

 

Visame internete yra panaši istorija. Remiantis skaitmeninės rinkos žvalgybos bendrovės „Similarweb“ duomenimis, šių metų rugsėjį žmonės į svetaines buvo nukreipti per pokalbių robotų pateiktas nuorodas daugiau nei 230 milijonų kartų per mėnesį. Tai tris kartus daugiau nei mėnesinių nukreipimų skaičius, palyginti su praėjusiais metais.

 

Šios nukreipimo programos yra vertingos: palyginti su vartotojais, kuriuos į svetainę nukreipė „Google“, tie, kuriuos nukreipė „ChatGPT“, linkę praleisti daugiau laiko svetainėje, peržiūrėti daugiau puslapių ir yra labiau linkę užbaigti sandorį.

 

Ir visa tai greičiausiai nepakankamai įvertina, kiek žmonės pasikliauja pokalbių robotais, sako Aleyda Solis, SEO ir dirbtinio intelekto optimizavimo agentūros „Orainti“ įkūrėja. Taip yra todėl, kad dauguma žmonių neužbaigia sandorių pokalbių robotuose – bent jau kol kas. Tarkime, gaunate rekomendaciją savo „ChatGPT“ programėlėje. Galbūt tada atsigręžiate į savo interneto naršyklę arba „Amazon“ programėlę, kad ją surastumėte ir įsigytumėte, sako Solis. Tai tikra rekomendacija, bet ji nėra stebima.

 

Kai kurių tipų atsakymams pakeisti dirbtinio intelekto nuomonę yra lengviau nei kitų, sako Nickas Koudas, Toronto universiteto kompiuterių mokslo profesorius ir neseniai šia tema paskelbto straipsnio autorius.

 

Įsivaizduokite dirbtinį intelektą kaip žmogų ekspertą, sako Koudas. Jei jis jau turi daug žinių apie tam tikrą temą, jums būtų sunkiau pakeisti jo nuomonę. Tačiau kai jis žino mažiau apie ką nors, jį galima lengviau paveikti. Tai ne tik pastebėjimas apie didelių kalbos modelių elgesį, priduria jis. „Visa tai pagrįsta gana standartiniais matematiniais“ intuicijos.“

 

Bailynui tai galimybė. Daugelis jo klientų yra gana nežinomos, vidutinės rinkos įmonės, gaminančios specializuotus produktus – ar tai būtų pramoninė įranga, ar sūkurinės vonios – ir aršiai konkuruojančios su panašius produktus siūlančiomis įmonėmis.

 

Siekdama padidinti šių įmonių produktų rodymą dirbtinio intelekto rezultatuose, Bailyno įmonė bent 10 svetainių įdiegia savotišką magišką užkeikimą, vadinamą „prekės ženklo autoriteto pareiškimu“. Paprastai jos priklauso kitiems klientams.

 

Tarkime, norite būti pirmasis atsakymas į klausimą „Kas yra geriausia vonia nuo išialgijos?“ „ChatGPT“. Susiejus klientą su fraze „aukščiausiai įvertintas nuo išialgijos“ įvairiuose įmonių tinklaraščiuose, gali pakakti įtikinti „ChatGPT“.

 

„OpenAI“ nuskaito žiniatinklį robotais, kad sukurtų „ChatGPT“ indeksą, kaip ir „Google“. Tačiau, remiantis naujausiais teismo dokumentais, „OpenAI“ taip pat perka išskaidytus „Google“ paieškos rezultatus.

 

Išvada ta, kad aukštas reitingas tradicinėje SEO, kitaip tariant, „Google“ rezultatuose, gali padėti įmonei įsitvirtinti dirbtinio intelekto akyse. Tačiau robotai taip pat ieško tų superlatyvų („geriausiai atliekantis“, „dažniausiai cituojamas“ ir pan.), nes jie ne tik pateikia rezultatus, bet ir bando sukurti pasakojimą, sako Bailyn.

 

Kita užuomina, svarbi robotams, yra ta, kur atsiranda pagyrimas, nes jie yra užprogramuoti labiau vertinti kai kuriuos šaltinius nei kitus. Apžvalga „The Wall Street Journal“ ar kitoje nepriklausomoje žiniasklaidos priemonėje turi didesnę įtaką nei, tarkime, komentaras „Reddit“, nors ir jie gali padėti.

 

Signalų, kuriais remiasi pokalbių robotai, įvairovė yra gera žinia galutiniams vartotojams, nes tai reiškia, kad kai kuriuos dirbtinio intelekto rezultatus sunkiau manipuliuoti. Vienas iš Bailyn klientų norėjo, kad jis įtikintų „ChatGPT“, jog ji nėra įsikūrusi Kinijoje, tačiau jos ištakas jau buvo nušvietusi didžioji žiniasklaida. „Mes negalime su tuo kovoti“, – sako jis.“ [1]

 

1. EXCHANGE --- Keywords: How Businesses Are Manipulating ChatGPT Results --- You've long heard about search engine optimization. Companies are now spending big on generative engine optimization. Mims, Christopher.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 31 Jan 2026: B2.  

How Businesses Are Manipulating ChatGPT Results --- You've long heard about search engine optimization. Companies are now spending big on generative engine optimization.

 

 

“When you ask ChatGPT and other AIs to recommend a product or service, odds are the top answers were put there by humans.

 

This doesn't mean artificial intelligence is lying to you. That first answer is probably a worthwhile option. But a growing number of small and midsize businesses are paying big bucks to get favorable mentions from chatbots.

 

In some ways, this is an evolution of SEO, or search engine optimization -- the strategies companies have been using for decades to appear atop Google results. But owing to the peculiarities of AI's large language models, SEO practitioners have had to adopt new strategies.

 

They call this generative engine optimization, aka GEO. (Some call it AEO, as in "answer engine optimization," and still others have their own names for it.)

 

The flourishing of this industry highlights something everyone seeking advice from a chatbot should know: A recommendation from AI isn't verified the way one from a human might be. Today's AIs are shallow readers of the internet, and their responses can be manipulated.

 

The creators of ChatGPT and other chatbots strive to source their answers from reputable sources, and attempt to weight sources by their veracity. But users of these chatbots should take all their advice with a grain of salt. If the answer really matters, seek a second opinion from a human-powered platform like a trusted news source, online reviews -- or a real-life expert.

 

ChatGPT uses its own in-house search index as well as third-party search technologies such as Bing and licensed data providers to provide high-quality, up-to-date information, says OpenAI. The company also says it takes steps to detect, disrupt and expose low-credibility or suspected covert-influence sources, adding that this is an ongoing program and will continue to evolve.

 

"On search, our AI features rely on our core search ranking systems that have been honed for years against activity like keyword stuffing," says a Google spokesman. "In Gemini, our models use filtering and other quality-assurance methods to verify data and model quality to help prevent any large-scale gaming of our systems."

 

Evan Bailyn is chief executive of First Page Sage, which started as an SEO firm. Today, when you ask any chatbot about the leading authorities on GEO, he or his company appears high up in the results. This is proof of his optimization skills, not some immutable law of the universe.

 

In the world of search, the currency is "referral traffic." That is, which websites or apps are sending people to a particular business. A year ago, 90% of that traffic came from Google, says Bailyn. Starting last summer, something changed. AI chatbot referrals started to rise dramatically. Now, Bailyn says, on average 44% of his clients' referrals come from AI.

 

Across the internet, there's a similar story. As of this past September, people were sent to websites via chatbot-provided links more than 230 million times a month, according to Similarweb, a digital market intelligence company. That's three times the number of monthly referrals from just a year before.

 

These referrals are valuable: Compared with users who were sent to a website by Google, those sent by ChatGPT tend to spend more time on a site, view more pages and are more likely to complete a transaction.

 

And all that likely understates how much people rely on chatbots, says Aleyda Solis, founder of SEO and AI optimization agency Orainti. That's because most people don't complete transactions within chatbots -- at least not yet. Say you get a recommendation in your ChatGPT app. Maybe you then turn to your web browser or Amazon app to track it down and buy it, says Solis. That's a real referral, but it isn't tracked.

 

Changing the mind of an AI is easier for some types of answers than for others, says Nick Koudas, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and author of a recent paper on the subject.

 

Think of an AI like a human expert, says Koudas. If it already has significant knowledge on a subject, you'd have a harder time changing its mind. But when it knows less about something, it can be more easily swayed. This isn't just an observation about the behavior of large language models, he adds. "This is all based on fairly standard mathematical intuitions."

 

For Bailyn, it's an opportunity. Many of his clients are relatively obscure, midmarket companies that make specialized products -- be they industrial fittings or hot tubs -- and fiercely compete with firms that offer similar products.

 

To boost the placement of these companies' products in AI results, Bailyn's company plants a sort of magic incantation, known as a "brand authority statement," on at least 10 websites. Typically these are owned by other clients.

 

Say you want to be the first answer to the question "What's the best hot tub for sciatica?" in ChatGPT. Associating his client with the phrase "highest-rated for sciatica" on various company blogs can be enough to convince ChatGPT.

 

OpenAI crawls the web with bots to build an index for ChatGPT, just like Google does. But OpenAI also buys scraped Google search results, according to recent court filings.

 

The takeaway is that ranking highly in traditional SEO -- aka Google results -- can help a company's standing with AIs. But the bots also look for those superlatives ("top performer," "most cited," etc.), because they aren't just surfacing results, they're actually trying to string together a narrative, says Bailyn.

 

Another cue that matters to bots is where the praise appears, since they are programmed to value some sources more than others. A review in The Wall Street Journal or some other independent media outlet has more influence than, say, a comment on Reddit, although those can help, too.

 

The variety of signals that chatbots rely on is good news for end users, because it means some AI results are harder to manipulate. One of Bailyn's clients wanted him to convince ChatGPT it wasn't based in China, but its origins had already been covered by major media. "We can't fight against that," he says.” [1]

 

1. EXCHANGE --- Keywords: How Businesses Are Manipulating ChatGPT Results --- You've long heard about search engine optimization. Companies are now spending big on generative engine optimization. Mims, Christopher.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 31 Jan 2026: B2.