Source: AFP
A sensational story about the Israeli prime minister’s “psychiatrist” has exploded online, but it was created by artificial intelligence, originating from one of hundreds of websites that researchers warn are peddling tech fiction masquerading as news.
Propaganda sites typically rely on armies of writers, but AI generation tools now offer a significantly cheaper and faster way to create content that is often difficult to decipher from authentic information.
Hundreds of AI-powered websites impersonating news outlets have sprung up in recent months, fueling an explosion of false narratives — about everything from war to politicians — that researchers say are causing alarm in a high-stakes election year across the globe. people.
“Israeli PM’s psychiatrist kills himself,” continues to top the list of “trending articles” flagged on Global Village Space, a Pakistani digital outlet, after it made headlines online in November with unsubstantiated claims of a suicide note blaming the Netanyahu.
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A “significant portion” of the site’s content, including this article, appears to have been removed from mainstream sources using artificial intelligence tools, according to an analysis by NewsGuard, a US-based research organization that monitors misinformation.
After scanning the site for error messages specific to content produced by AI chatbots, NewsGuard said it found significant similarities between the thread about Netanyahu’s “psychiatrist” and a fictional 2010 article on a satirical website.
NewsGuard analyst McKenzie Sadeghi said that when she asked ChatGPT, from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, to rewrite the original article for a general news audience, the result was “very similar” to the Global Village Space article.
“The exponential growth of AI-generated news and information sources is worrying because these sites can be perceived by the average user as legitimate, reliable sources of information,” Sadeghi told AFP.
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Pushing propaganda
The fabricated article, which came as Netanyahu pushes for war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, was circulated on social media platforms in multiple languages, including Arabic, Farsi and French.
A handful of websites published obituaries of the fictional “psychiatrist.”
The lie also appeared on a TV show in Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy, as its host instructed viewers to read the full article on Global Village Space.
The website, which called Netanyahu’s article “satire” after being called out, did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
NewsGuard identified at least 739 AI-generated “news” websites spanning multiple languages that operate with little to no human oversight and have generic titles such as “Ireland Top News”.
But even that list is likely “just the low-hanging fruit,” said Darren Linvill, of Clemson University.
Linville is among the university’s disinformation experts who found several Russia-linked websites impersonating news and promoting Kremlin propaganda about the war in Ukraine ahead of the US presidential election in November.
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They include DC Weekly, which NewsGuard said uses artificial intelligence to rewrite articles from other sources without credit.
This website — which appears to be owned by John Mark Duggan, a former US Marine who defected to Russia — published a series of false claims, including that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bought two million-dollar luxury yachts with money from American aid.
Highlighting the power of AI-driven disinformation to influence policy decisions, some US lawmakers have repeated the false narrative amid a critical debate over aid to Ukraine.
‘Camouflage’
“Automatically generated disinformation is likely to be an important part of the 2024 election,” New York University professor Gary Marcus told AFP.
“Fraudsters are using (Generic) AI left, right and center.”
AI-generated content involving sites like DC Weekly helps “create a kind of camouflage” that lends more credibility to their fake human-written stories, Linvill told AFP.
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These sites highlight the potential for artificial intelligence tools — chatbots even more than photo generators and voice cloners — to supercharge misinformation while further eroding trust in traditional media, researchers say.
Their polarizing content, which could cause unrest and influence political beliefs, is intended to attract eyeballs and generate ad revenue.
The revenue model for many of these sites is programmatic advertising, which means top brands can end up unwittingly endorsing them, and it can be difficult for governments to push for fear of violating free speech protections , the researchers say.
“I’m particularly concerned about it being used by for-profit companies,” Linvill said.
“If we don’t stop and pay attention, it will only further erode the line between reality and fantasy that is already so blurred.”
Source: AFP