The Internet Cheapened News. AI Will Do the Opposite.
Tech companies will always fail to contain misinformation on social media. But news organizations can thrive in the ‘Age of Unreality’ created by the rise of artificial intelligence.
Can you spot misinformation?
Photographer: Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images
About a decade into conversations around the explosion in misinformation online, the problem doesn’t seem all that closer to being solved. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge tech companies will never be able to eradicate, or even stem the tide, of fake news, data and facts. But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. Trusted sources of information can step up.
In the information war surrounding the Israel-Gaza conflict, fakery is taking many forms. Sometimes it’s an old video, such as from the conflict in Syria, re-captioned to appear new and relevant. One that was circulated was actually a fireworks display in Algeria. Another showed footage from a video game. As footage and images go viral, the fiction far exceeds the truth, according to CBS News Chief Executive Office Wendy McMahon. Shayan Sardarizadeh, a UK-based journalist on the BBC’s Verify team, told Oxford University’s Reuters Institute that “the volume of misinformation on X was beyond anything I've ever seen.” He debunks false footage and images on X, formerly known as Twitter, but barely makes a dent.