Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) models can produce image, text, audio and video that enhance a new era of creativity and commercial opportunity. They can be prompted to write songs, novels and poems, computer code, policy briefs and news reports. Excitement is palpable among scientists.
Though few scientists want to halt its advance, AI can easily spread disinformation. With AI and the internet, falsifying evidence, ignoring context and manipulating human likenesses are common. Reports of scenarios are staggering:
• An international company reportedly lost around $26 million after an employee was tricked into making a financial transfer during an online meeting in which every other “person” in the meeting, including the company’s chief financial officer, was in fact a computer-generated imposter.
• A deep fake showed the pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly posting a statement that insulin was “free now.” The company’s stock price plummeted in response.
• AI-generated realistic photo images and videos were used to superimpose the faces of celebrities onto the bodies of individuals performing deviant acts without their consent.
• AI surveillance allows schools to monitor students’ online activities including private conversations. A Valley News article described a teenage girl making a joke about school shootings on a private Snapchat story. Snapchat’s automated detection software picked it up, the company alerted the FBI and the girl was arrested within hours.
What can we do? Keep in mind that A.I. is only as powerful as we allow, creates the illusion of connection with other people and erodes our view of what is real. It has no ethical understanding of the world. So, increase your vigilance, improve your fact-checking, evaluate evidence and promote digital literacy.
Bob Scobie