From NewScientist
How to avoid being fooled by AI-generated misinformation
By Jeremy Hsu
Did you notice that the image above was created by artificial intelligence? It can be difficult to spot AI-generated images, video, audio and text at a time when technological advances are making them increasingly indistinguishable from much human-created content, leaving us open to manipulation by disinformation. But by knowing the current state of the AI technologies used to create misinformation, and the range of telltale signs that what you are looking at might be fake, you can help protect yourself from being taken in.
World leaders are concerned. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, misinformation and disinformation may “radically disrupt electoral processes in several economies over the next two years”, while easier access to AI tools “have already enabled an explosion in falsified information and so-called ‘synthetic’ content, from sophisticated voice cloning to counterfeit websites”...
“The issue with AI-powered disinformation is the scale, speed and ease with which campaigns can be launched,” says Hany Farid at the University of California, Berkeley. “These attacks will no longer take state-sponsored actors or well-financed organisations – a single individual with access to some modest computing power can create massive amounts of fake content...”
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley and a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project.
