Researchers have found that scammers and propagandists around the world are deploying AI tools to build fake news sites, often misleading readers and viewers into thinking they are genuine sources. It warns that Generative AI tools offer a significantly cheaper and faster way to create content, but in a year of high-stakes elections around the world, AI tools are needed to help agents sway the masses. This is a worrying trend as the use of
fictional “psychiatrist”
One such fake article, created by AI and published on Pakistani digital distribution site Global Village Space, claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s psychiatrist committed “suicide” It quickly spread on the internet.
The article, published in November, claimed that a “psychiatrist” had blamed Prime Minister Netanyahu for his death in a suicide note.
NewsGuard, a US-based investigative agency that tracks misinformation, later revealed that the outlet had been flooded with AI-generated content, mostly scrapped from mainstream online sources. did. After investigating, the group found significant similarities between the fake article and a fictitious 2010 article on a satirical website.
Mackenzie Sadeghi, an analyst at NewsGuard, was quoted by AFP as saying, “The rapid increase in AI-generated news and information sources is alarming because these sites cannot be used by the average user. This is because it may be perceived as a legitimate and reliable source of information.”
used by propagandists
As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, a fake article about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s psychiatrist has spread rapidly. It was received with open arms by Iranian TV channels, who urged viewers to read the full article on Global Village Space.
The article was also translated into multiple languages, including Arabic, Persian, and French, and amplified with multiple handles across social media platforms.
Some sites even posted obituaries for fictitious “psychiatrists.”
Why is that a concern?
Experts believe that fraudsters could use AI to spread misinformation in high-stakes election years, such as in the United States and India.
Gary Marcus, a professor at New York University, said that automatically generated misinformation is likely to be a major part of the 2024 election, and that “fraudsters are using (generative) AI on the left, right, and center. “We are using it,” AFP reported.
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According to NewsGuard, there are at least 739 AI-generated “easy news” sites that operate with little or no human oversight and have generic names such as “Ireland’s Top News.”
Analysts believe it could also hurt advertisers’ interests, as they could be seen as indirectly endorsing content that is not based on facts or reality on the ground.
(Information provided by agency)
