It is not about AI models
The policy applies regardless of the production method: generated, written manually, scraped, translated, or assembled from a template. Google's position has not changed since 2023: the quality of the content is evaluated, not how it is created. AI models were included in the examples of violations only because they make the mass production of empty pages cheap.
What triggers a penalty
Pages with the same structure and a couple of swapped variables. Texts that add nothing to what is already in the search results. Materials created for minor query variations. Lack of editorial review and fact-checking.
How it ends
Manual penalties or algorithmic loss of visibility. The March 2026 update hit projects with large arrays of uniform pages, and the traffic drop there was measured in tens of percent. Recovery takes months and requires a cleanup, not cosmetic fixes.