In the past nine months, websites containing fake news articles generated by AI have increased by over 1,000%. According to NewsGuard, an AI watchdog that tracks misinformation, these kinds of websites have exploded from 49 to 600 since May 2023. Fake news has been a controversial topic of conversation since the 2016 Trump election. Still, with the rapidly increasing emergence of AI in the past year, it’s never been easier to build a website that looks legitimate but is full of misleading and false information. Anyone from members of intelligence organizations to high school students with a computer background can produce content that looks and sounds like real news -even if it’s entirely made up. Let’s get into the details.
Background
The coined term “fake news” became popular a couple of years back, and according to the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Center for Information Technology & Society, fake news is generally defined as:
“News articles that are intentionally and verifiably false [1] designed to manipulate people’s perceptions of real facts, events, and statements. It’s about information presented as news known by its promoter to be false based on facts that are demonstrably incorrect or statements or events that verifiably did not happen. Fake news is fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but…lack(s) the news media’s editorial norms and processes for ensuring the accuracy and credibility of information [2]. It overlaps with misinformation (false or misleading information) and disinformation (false information purposely spread to mislead people).”
Fake news is often used as a propaganda tool to spread misinformation and evoke strong emotional reactions from its readers. Different entities use fake news to peddle disinformation and spread false stories. It permeates all news category types, often centering around politics, warfare, celebrities, and public interest stories. “Technology has long fueled misinformation,” and fake news targets audiences of different ages, political affiliations, and interests
Why is it Dangerous?
With the development of generative AI, it is becoming increasingly more accessible for people to create fake news that looks and sounds authentic. News is powerful. Information can spread around the globe in minutes as technology allows people to access information instantly. With the ability to access news worldwide at our fingertips, spreading misinformation can be dangerous -especially when it targets vulnerable populations with information meant to evoke strong emotions with provocative content leading people to make questionable decisions.
“Generative artificial intelligence has ushered in an era in which chatbots, image makers, and voice cloners can produce content that seems human-made.” GAI is dangerous because it can use famous news anchors and voiceover manipulation to impersonate real people and spread false information that is difficult to discern for the public. According to Forbes, “doctored news broadcasts relying on the voices and faces of high-profile journalists appear to be a newer, potentially more dangerous tack.” Stories become more believable when real and AI-generated news exists side-by-side within one website.
Mass panic could erupt if people cannot differentiate between fake news and legitimate information. Additionally, GAI can sometimes hallucinate, furthering the spread of false information. Hallucinations are “a phenomenon where large language model (LLM)—often a generative AI chatbot or computer vision tool—perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent or imperceptible to human observers, creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate.” Further, “[i]t is not necessarily that people will be more easily fooled, but rather that people will become slightly more skeptical of information in general, including trustworthy information.”
How to Prevent the Spread of Misinformation
To combat the spread of misinformation news organizations and social media companies should consistently fact check their information –and alert consumers of AI-generated content. Consumers should verify stories through reputable websites and sources and remain diligent when surfing the web.
The US government will likely begin implementing legislation to regulate AI-created content. Some ways this could be done include tagging content that is AI-generated. The balance lies in creating regulations that protect the public from the risks of AI-generated content without infringing on the right to free speech.
Right now, enforceable regulation in the US is mainly nonexistent, but with President Biden’s AI Executive Order and the EU’s announcement of passing the first AI regulations, it seems laws regulating AI-generated content are on the horizon.
Cut Through the Noise and Rely on Trustworthy Data
Navigating AI technology can be tricky as there are many AI platforms to choose from. As lawyers, information relied on by the courts and clients must be factually and legally accurate –the entire industry depends on it. If you are a legal professional considering incorporating AI into your practice to save time but are weary of AI-generated content –consider Trellis Law!
Trellis is an AI-driven, state-civil trial court research and analytics platform that has democratized access to state laws and regulations by making the fragmented United States state trial court system searchable through a single interface. Trellis takes thousands of county courts and millions of documents and structures them into an immense, searchable, and organized dataset.
Users get a broader perspective and more comprehensive insight by aggregating data from various county courts. Structured data allows lawyers and legal professionals to search for specific cases, precedents, judges, or motions, allowing them to expedite their research process. Because our data is pulled directly from court dockets, our users can access actual court documents, trusting that the information provided is accurate. Contact us today for a demo.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/17/ai-fake-news-misinformation/
https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/ai-tracking-center/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/08/ai-generated-news-websites-study
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/amid-spread-ai-tools-new-digital-standard-users/story?id=102397146
https://www.ibm.com/topics/ai-hallucinations
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