WHEN OPENAI DEMONSTRATED a powerful artificial intelligence algorithm capable of generating coherent text last June, its creators warned that the tool could potentially be wielded as a weapon of online misinformation.
Now a team of disinformation experts has demonstrated how effectively that algorithm, called GPT-3, could be used to mislead and misinform. The results suggest that although AI may not be a match for the best Russian meme-making operative, it could amplify some forms of deception that would be especially difficult to spot.
Over six months, a group at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology used GPT-3 to generate misinformation, including stories around a false narrative, news articles altered to push a bogus perspective, and tweets riffing on particular points of disinformation.
“I don't think it's a coincidence that climate change is the new global warming,” read a sample tweet composed by GPT-3 that aimed to stoke skepticism about climate change. “They can't talk about temperature increases because they're no longer happening.” A second labeled climate change “the new communism—an ideology based on a false science that cannot be questioned.”
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
Google's AI Overviews Is Returning Bizarre And Even Dangerous Results by Alfredo Carpineti. (Edited by Laura Simmons).
May 24, 2024
Introduction:
(IFL Science) Google has launched AI Overviews. And it is not going too well. The feature was launched in the US last week and it will spread globally by the end of 2024, but results so far suggest that it is a mess. Users on social media were quick to point out the funny answers until several people started noting that there were also several concerning ones.
AI Overviews is an experimental tool. Once you enter a query, the search engines provide an AI-generated result. However, machine learning algorithms are not conscious. They are trained to recognize words and phrases in certain contexts, so when they are asked something, they create an answer that is expected to fit the query. Even if the AI has to make stuff up. Like creating fake legal cases for a lawyer.
Google’s AI Overviews gets the answers from real sites, but AI is not smart enough to recognize serious answers from satirical or comedic ones. So "news" sites like The Onion or social media platforms like Reddit are providing comedic fodder to the clueless AI.
When asked “How many rocks should I eat each day?”
Overviews confidently says that according to UC Berkeley geologists you should eat at least one small rock per day. That’s from The Onion. Asked about how (to) make cheese stick better to pizza, Overviews suggests edible glue. Yes, glue is use in advertisements to make the cheese look more stringy, but the claim actually comes from an 11-year-old post…
caltrek’s comment: As I have said before, do not rely on AI to give accurate answers. Rather, when footnotes are provided, track down the sources relied upon and be sure the citation is accurate and the source is credible.
