A 2023 news story on healthy and ethical pornography is driving the University of Sydney’s global AI visibility, according to analysis this month.
In examining tools to assess the visibility of universities through AI tools, Future Campus used a platform called Semrush this month to gain insights into how a selection of Australian tertiary institutions performed in terms of AI visibility.
The analysis was prompted by a rush towards AI optimisation of websites across the marketing sector – with a wide range of agencies set to spruik tools to optimise the appearance of organisational websites in AI searches. Last year, IDP found that more than half (54%) of international students used AI to help them decide on their university.
A McKinsey study found that half of all consumers use AI-powered search, and predicts it will impact $750 billion in online revenue by 2028.
The analysis of the Monash, University of Melbourne, UNSW, University of Sydney and Deakin websites on a global scale revealed the pitfalls in data related to AI searches. 14.6 million AI searches had been conducted for a German language prompt which translates as: “Are there any recommendations for responsible consumption of pornography?”
One of the top sources AI bots used in responding to the question was a University of Sydney news story on healthy and ethical use of pornography.
The site recommendation to other universities is to “Consider creating or optimizing content around this topic to improve your chances of ranking and potentially grow your audience by 8.1%.”
The site ranks Monash at 73/100 AI visibility in December 2025, compared to Sydney at 62, UNSW at 59, University of Melbourne at 56 and Deakin at 37.
In contrast, when evaluated for visibility by Australian audiences, all brands appear in the 74-78/100 range, and the top three topics driving AI visibility are listed as Australian weather & forecasts, Australian school & Public Holidays 2025 and Zodiac Signs & Astrology.
The results are interesting, and analysis will undoubtedly occur in far greater depth as the year progresses – there are a huge range of uses for online analytical tools and we have barely scratched the surface in experimenting with this platform.
There is no suggestion that the porn ethics story was published for any reason other than effective knowledge translation. The question is what we need to learn from what has happened since. Will institutions become less visible – and less popular with commencing students – if they do not heed the advice of AI optimisation tools?
If tertiary institutions wish to be seen and heard by the public, will they need to conjure up a story with perspectives on pornography, or some other salacious search topic?
Alternatively, is this a good trend? Will the public outreach and comms efforts of tertiary staff focus on connecting the public with the facts they most want, rather than being shaped by our own organisational priorities?
For those wanting to tap into the zeitgiest, a quick look at top searches in the US shows that the top five searches are navigational (YouTube, Amazon etc), but maybe a story about ‘Food Near Me’ (13th on December’s Google list in the US) Solitaire ranks well ( number 49) and then there's always that communications gift that just keeps giving, “Donald Trump” (ranked 74th ).
We will dive into other aspects of AI optimisation later this week.