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Recent Questions - Meta Stack Exchange · Aug 16, 2026

Is a question mentioning that OP web-searched ideas, and "the search engine AI said" considered a violation of No AI? [duplicate]

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AI-assisted answering is generally restricted or banned on SE ( or is it SO? ) sites. This makes sense. However, some questioners say that they web-searched their problem and then report that the "[search engine] AI said..." then quoting or summarizing the AI-generated entry from their search. I see this as an equivalent of "I web-searched, and this is what I found..." that we probably saw a lot…

AI-assisted answering is generally restricted or banned on SE (or is it SO?) sites. This makes sense.

However, some questioners say that they web-searched their problem and then report that the "[search engine] AI said..." then quoting or summarizing the AI-generated entry from their search.

I see this as an equivalent of "I web-searched, and this is what I found..." that we probably saw a lot of a few years ago. Though the danger of the AI summary being wrong or hallucinated is present and may need to be commented on, it looks to me that seeing this in a question would much more indicate that OP wrote the question themselves and did not pass their question text itself through an AI. The only AI content seems to be what "AI said...".

What should be done when an SE site has banned AI-assistance, and the question contains "I searched, and AI said..."?

  • A. Delete the "AI said..." part out of the question and tell OP that AI-generated content of any kind is banned?

  • B. Allow the text to remain and tell OP that the AI result may have errors and shouldn't be trusted?

  • C. Pretend the "AI said..." is equivalent in intent to a few years' ago's "the web-search said...", and answer the question regardless of what AI said?

  • D. Something else?


Note, I feel that this is not a duplicate of Google Search AI output - is this proper "generative AI"? where the concentration is on "Web-search AI said" in answers. I'm asking about the OP saying it in the question.

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