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News Source Citing Patterns in AI Search Systems
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News Source Citing Patterns in AI Search Systems
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AI-powered search systems are emerging as new information gatekeepers, fundamentally transforming how users access news and information. Despite their growing influence, the citation patterns of these systems remain poorly understood. We address this gap by analyzing data from the AI Search Arena, a head-to-head evaluation platform for AI search systems. The dataset comprises over 24,000 conversations and 65,000 responses from models across three major providers: OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google. Among the over 366,000 citations embedded in these responses, 9% reference news sources. We find that while models from different providers cite distinct news sources, they exhibit shared patterns in citation behavior. News citations concentrate heavily among a small number of outlets and display a pronounced liberal bias, though low-credibility sources are rarely cited. User preference analysis reveals that neither the political leaning nor the quality of cited news sources significantly influences user satisfaction. These findings reveal significant challenges in current AI search systems and have important implications for their design and governance.
Forward citations
Cited by 5 Pith papers
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Generative Engine Optimization at Scale: Measuring Brand Visibility Across AI Search Engines
Large-scale analysis of AI engine responses shows brand visibility in three tiers (73%, 44%, 11%) with corporate sites and best-of listicles as top cited sources.
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Synthetic Sources?: Auditing Generative Search Engine Citations for Evidence of AI-Generated Sources
Audit of ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity finds ~16% of cited sources are AI-generated across 712 queries on politics, health and environment.
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From Citation Selection to Citation Absorption: A Measurement Framework for Generative Engine Optimization Across AI Search Platforms
A measurement study of 602 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity finds that citation selection breadth and absorption depth diverge, with high-influence pages being longer, structured, and evidence-rich.
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How Large Language Models Source Brand Reputation Across Languages and Markets
LLMs cite third-party domains for 85.7% of brand attributions, with Wikipedia dominant in most languages, a long-tailed domain distribution, and market-specific shifts such as YouTube and HR sites in Poland.
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Two major AI providers diverge in which brands they recommend but converge on classifying the failure reasons, especially for low-prominence brands.
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