Disinformation swarms

Researchers published a paper in Science on the growing threat of AI swarms used for chaos in existing and new online communities. For Wired, David Gilbert reports:

“We are moving into a new phase of informational warfare on social media platforms where technological advancements have made the classic bot approach outdated,” says Jonas Kunst, a professor of communication at BI Norwegian Business School and one of the coauthors of the report.

For experts who have spent years tracking and combating disinformation campaigns, the paper presents a terrifying future.

“What if AI wasn’t just hallucinating information, but thousands of AI chatbots were working together to give the guise of grassroots support where there was none? That’s the future this paper imagines—Russian troll farms on steroids,” says Nina Jankowicz, the former Biden administration disinformation czar who is now CEO of the American Sunlight Project.

It’s difficult to imagine social media sticking around when there’s no longer a way to know what’s real. What would even be the point? Pen and paper are going to make a comeback.

Tags: disinformation, ethics, fake, Wired