Fake News Websites Proliferate Thanks AI!
May 16, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
Technology has consequences. And in the case of advanced AI chatbots, it seems those who unleashed the tech on the world had their excuses ready. Gadgets360° shares the article, “ChatGPT-Like AI Chatbots Have Been Used to Create 49 News Websites: NewsGuard Report.” Though researchers discovered they were created with software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and, possibly, Google Bard, none of the 49 “news” sites disclosed that origin story. Bloomberg reporter Davey Alba cites a report by NewsGuard that details how researchers hunted down these sites: They searched for phrases commonly found in AI-generated text using tools like CrowdTangle (a sibling of Facebook) and Meltwater. They also received help from the AI text classifier GPTZero. Alba writes:
“In several instances, NewsGuard documented how the chatbots generated falsehoods for published pieces. In April alone, a website called CelebritiesDeaths.com published an article titled, ‘Biden dead. Harris acting President, address 9 a.m.’ Another concocted facts about the life and works of an architect as part of a falsified obituary. And a site called TNewsNetwork published an unverified story about the deaths of thousands of soldiers in the Russia-Ukraine war, based on a YouTube video. The majority of the sites appear to be content farms — low-quality websites run by anonymous sources that churn-out posts to bring in advertising. The websites are based all over the world and are published in several languages, including English, Portuguese, Tagalog and Thai, NewsGuard said in its report. A handful of sites generated some revenue by advertising ‘guest posting’ — in which people can order up mentions of their business on the websites for a fee to help their search ranking. Others appeared to attempt to build an audience on social media, such as ScoopEarth.com, which publishes celebrity biographies and whose related Facebook page has a following of 124,000.”
Naturally, more than half the sites they found were running targeted ads. NewsGuard reasonably suggested AI companies should build in safeguards against their creations being used this way. Both OpenAI and Google point to existing review procedures and enforcement policies against misuse. Alba notes the situation is particularly tricky for Google, which profits from the ads that grace the fake news sites. After Bloomberg alerted it to the NewsGuard findings, the company did remove some ads from some of the sites.
Of course, posting fake and shoddy content for traffic, ads, and clicks is nothing new. But, as one expert confirmed, the most recent breakthroughs in AI technology make it much easier, faster, and cheaper. Gee, who could have foreseen that?
Cynthia Murrell, May 16, 2023
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
