Ep 26: The SEO Shift to AEO: Chris Singel on What AI Gets Wrong (and Right)

In this episode of the AI Grapple Chris Singel joins Kate vanderVoort for a wide-ranging, funny, and thought-provoking conversation that spans the full weird and wonderful world of artificial intelligence. From his early days coding websites on dial-up, to writing a book with AI in the shower (yes, literally), to deep dives on automation, job loss, and the ethics of AI-powered decision-making - this is an episode that will both entertain and challenge your thinking.

Chris blends sharp insights with plenty of laughs, and doesn’t hold back when talking about hallucinations, deepfakes, the illusion of control, and why letting robots do the work might not be the worst idea after all.

🔥 Key Highlights

🕹️ Dial-Up Days to AI Days Chris shares how his tech journey started in middle school, building a website for his local movie theatre on dial-up internet. From there, he navigated politics, public policy, and a thriving comedy career before landing in digital marketing - and eventually founding his own agency, Delta Digital.

📘 Writing a Book in the Shower (Almost) In March 2023, after seeing Google Bard launch, Chris wondered: Can AI write a book about AI? Twelve minutes and one marketing push later, his AI-generated book Think Like an AI became a #1 new release on Amazon. It wasn't perfect - but that was kind of the point.

🤖 LLMs vs Reasoning Models Chris likens Large Language Models to entry-level employees - they do what they’re told but don’t think critically. Reasoning Models are more like mid-level managers. So what happens when AI reaches C-suite capabilities? Who’s making the decisions then?

🎨 AI and Creativity: Killer or Catalyst? While many worry that AI will kill creativity, Chris argues the opposite. By removing repetitive, low-value tasks, AI frees humans up to actually be creative again. Designers can design. Writers can think bigger. And marketers can dream up ideas beyond just moving pixels around.

🌍 Comedy Meets Code Chris reflects on how AI still struggles with humour - subtext, timing, and cultural context are difficult to replicate. But he’s also used AI to brainstorm jokes, generate story ideas, and even build Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. AI might not replace comedians, but it’s already helping them.

🔍 The SEO Shift to AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) AI search changes everything. Instead of driving traffic to your website, answer engines might just give users a response - and move on. Chris talks about the death of zero-click SEO, Google's history with AMP and Answer Boxes, and how marketers should now be thinking about discoverability in a searchless future.

🚨 Hallucinations & Misinformation Glue in a pizza recipe? Sure. Fake medical advice? Dangerous. Chris shares some of the real risks that come with trusting AI too quickly, especially when it fabricates sources or gets basic facts wrong with total confidence. The stakes aren’t just professional—they’re personal and even life-threatening.

👤 The Identity Crisis: Trust, Deepfakes & Disinformation From duplicate Facebook profiles of relatives to fake AI-generated nudes in high schools, Chris highlights the growing crisis of digital identity and trust. We’re entering an era where it’s hard to know what—or who—is real online.

⚖️ Governance, Responsibility & the Blame Game If an AI recommends the wrong medication or a faulty DIY fix, who's responsible? The developer? The platform? The end user? Chris dives into the growing AI governance conversation, the legal gray areas, and why we need urgent answers to very old questions about liability.

🌐 Global Tug-of-War: US vs EU vs China Kate and Chris discuss the differing global approaches to AI regulation. The EU is leaning into safety and ethics. The US is driven by market forces. China plays its own game. But with the internet being global, whatever rules one region sets will affect everyone.

💼 AI in