{"id":487883,"date":"2024-09-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=487883"},"modified":"2024-09-22T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T08:00:00","slug":"social-medias-disinformation-height-is-ai-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/social-medias-disinformation-height-is-ai-to-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media\u2019s disinformation height: Is AI to blame?<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The task of navigating through the online network has become particularly challenging after the advancement of artificial intelligence. Social media platforms have been flooded with disinformation, leaving users unaware of certain content\u2019s reliability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this is important<\/h2>

The so-called deep fake images and videos have disrupted elections and raised concerns about potential risks to democracies. As a response, countries have been tightening their legislation to counter the unstoppable flow of disinformation. According to the 2024 Digital News Report<\/a>, 59% of people surveyed are concerned about what is real and what is fake on the internet.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There has been a myriad of AI-generated material focused on deliberately disseminating false and malicious content on social media, raising an important question: Is AI to blame for the rise of disinformation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Beatriz Farrugia, a research associate at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and professor, \u201cAI tools make disinformation spread more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farrugia, who is an expert in disinformation and extremism, says there are no current studies that can prove that artificial intelligence consequently leads to a greater number of disinformation pieces. \u201cIt is a very difficult thing to measure, and if we did that, the results would be limited to a certain society in a specific time frame.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a new technique<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since the Roman Empire, disinformation has been used as a weapon to manipulate narratives. Back then, the intention was to prevail on the battlefield. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, the battlefield has been modified, and currently, the end goal is to cause disruption:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDisinformation campaigns have always happened and will continue to happen. What changes now is the tactic, the method, the frequency, and the speed with which they spread, and the impact they have,\u201d explains Farrugia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media\u2019s response<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the past years, social media companies have adapted their platforms to counter the negative impacts of disinformation. Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and X, the most popular out there, have implemented content moderation, allowing users to report malicious or false posts. Yet, platforms have not been able to fully tackle this issue. In the European parliament\u2019s elections, earlier this year, a coordinated disinformation campaign on X aimed to disrupt electoral processes in France, Germany, and Italy.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now there\u2019s a new component to the equation, AI-generated content. Due to a wave of conspiracy stories and misinformation spread on X and TikTok, users worry about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content online<\/a>. Recently, many unreliable narratives and deepfakes about the war in Gaza and the US elections have been gathering millions of views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tightening regulations  <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Across the world, countries are imposing stricter regulations on these platforms. In Brazil, the Supreme Court has temporarily banned Elon Musk\u2019s X, as the company did not meet the court\u2019s deadline to name a new legal representative in the country<\/a>. The clash between the tech billionaire and Brazil\u2019s highest court is part of an ongoing campaign against disinformation in the most populous country in Latin America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other nations have also been facing challenges in regulating social media networks, especially amid the surge of generative AI tools. The European Commission has charged<\/a> X, formerly Twitter, for breaches against the new Digital Services Act (DSA), designed to reduce disinformation and illegal online content. The Commission accused X of not doing enough to counter the spread of malicious and toxic content on the platform.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Imagine a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to convince conspiracy theorists with facts. Sounds bizarre, but that’s what researchers actually found. <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Confusion about AI<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201cartificial intelligence\u201d still generates confusion among people. Not everyone knows what it means, the possibilities offered by it, or how to identify AI-generated content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, there have been discussions on social media in which users accuse certain content of being \u2018deep fakes\u2019 or \u201cAI-generated\u2019, even when this content is legit<\/a>. Hence, this lack of understanding can be just as damaging as the content created by artificial intelligence itself:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn an election scenario, this confusion about AI can be a risk,\u201d explains Farrugia. \u201cInstead of strengthening democratic discussions, the information ecosystem is destabilized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balancing the equation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AI-powered applications can manipulate, change, and create new images, videos, and audio versions. While AI opens up many possibilities, it can sometimes be misused to spread false information. Indeed, tech companies should be the legal party responsible for countering these negative effects. Yet, a big part of the problem also lies in the way people use this technology, whether with good or malicious intent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can’t just blame the technology companies. We also have to put the responsibility on society,\u201d says Farrugia. She explains that there should be more attention to the way these tools are being deployed and to \u201cthe laws we need to prevent online crimes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no overnight solution to the problem,\u201d as it might take a lot of time and effort to find a middle ground between AI, social media platforms, and society. Yet, it is essential to work on media literacy and intelligence, educating people on how to navigate in this AI network era. Users should learn to reflect and make informed decisions based on the content gathered on social media.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, platforms should create mechanisms, labels, and categories indicating which content is AI-generated. By raising awareness, the harmful impacts of disinformation campaigns can be mitigated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s like learning a new language. No one is going to be fluent in a few classes. But we need to take these steps in education and in the evolution of the platforms to prevent it from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double-edged sword<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Farrugia explains that it is also possible to use AI tools as a counter-offence. At her work, artificial intelligence and language models have been used to detect cases of disinformation and patterns of malicious actors running disinformation campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe collect data and then use AI to analyze and find patterns more quickly. So we gain speed in the fight against disinformation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The task of navigating through the online network has become particularly challenging after the advancement of artificial intelligence. Social media platforms have been flooded with disinformation, leaving users unaware of certain content\u2019s reliability.\u00a0 There has been a myriad of AI-generated material focused on deliberately disseminating false and malicious content on social media, raising an important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2596,"featured_media":506079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84026],"tags":[10373,69735,70506,2523,65584,36422,86233,81642],"location":[66582],"article_type":[43139],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[82795],"class_list":["post-487883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data","tag-ai","tag-ai-nl-3","tag-democracy","tag-democratie","tag-disinformation","tag-social-media","tag-tiktok","tag-x","location-europe","article_type-features","reboot-archive-data"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"AI-generated content has been confusing the public while threatening democratic debates.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Thales Dibo","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/thales\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/innovationorigins_A_person_is_staring_at_a_phone_screen_the_scr_4aaf68ba-7c87-4b73-acd7-d88570c9d208.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["DATA+<\/a>"],"unlinked":["DATA+<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["AI<\/a>","AI<\/a>","democracy<\/a>","democratie<\/a>","disinformation<\/a>","social media<\/a>","TikTok<\/a>","X<\/a>"],"unlinked":["AI<\/span>","AI<\/span>","democracy<\/span>","democratie<\/span>","disinformation<\/span>","social media<\/span>","TikTok<\/span>","X<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on September 22, 2024","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on September 22, 2024 10:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2024 10:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=487883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}