AI-Generated Fake News is a Reality

Just when you might've thought, "The media can't get any worse when it has already become turmoiled with fake news and lies," AI technology has now become so advanced it can conjure realistic and believable stories by simply giving it a prompt.

According to WIRED, it all began at the University of Cambridge's Social Decision-Making Laboratory. They used an early version of ChatGPT, called GPT-2, and trained it with popular conspiracy theories. The result? Thousands of fake news stories that sounded believable. For example, it generated headlines like “Certain Vaccines Are Loaded With Dangerous Chemicals” and “Government Officials Have Manipulated Stock Prices to Hide Scandals.” The big question they had was, would people believe these fake stories? To find out, the researchers created a test called the Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST) and teamed up with YouGov to see how Americans would react to AI-generated fake news. Shockingly, 41% of people believed the fake vaccine story, and 46% believed the fake stock market story. Another study showed that GPT-3, a more advanced AI, makes fake news that’s even more convincing than what humans create. And most people can’t tell the difference between AI-generated fake news and the real stuff.

With the 2024 elections coming up, we’re likely to see even more AI-generated fake news, deepfakes, and voice cloning. Governments might have to step in and regulate how AI is used in political campaigns to protect democracy.

[1 image, 2 quotations, 1 link, 243 words]