On January 18, during the 2024 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, slogans about artificial intelligence were on the streets of Davos, Switzerland.
From the market to the temple, almost everyone is talking about generative artificial intelligence. Its emergence provides more convenience and potential for daily life, but also brings lies and harm-from impersonating celebrities to influencing elections, and so on.
The British "Guardian" pointed out that in a world where false information can be spread everywhere with just a click of a mouse, a key question has emerged in the minds of the younger generation: How should we defend the truth in the face of the threat of false information?
Deception brought by artificial intelligence will be everywhere
The capabilities of artificial intelligence are constantly improving. From creating realistic images, imitating different voices, to writing amazing articles, these capabilities have made more and more people fall in love with artificial intelligence tools. However, according to the Guardian, while bringing "disruptive revolutions" to many industries, artificial intelligence is also increasingly being used in politics, potentially "exacerbating existing inequalities."
The Associated Press stated that compared with a few years ago, artificial intelligence technology has made a huge leap forward and has also brought unprecedented trouble: "In the past, producing fake photos, videos or audios required a lot of manpower, time and money. Now , using free or low-cost generative artificial intelligence services from companies such as Google and OpenAI, almost everyone can create 'deepfake' content with simple text prompts."
2024 is an election year in more than 50 countries around the world , involving nearly 4 billion people. With the frequent occurrence of "deep forgery" issues related to elections, concerns about "election false information" have continued to escalate. In the past few months, artificial intelligence has been "making waves" everywhere: the image of the Pentagon explosion it generated once caused the U.S. stock market to fall; an artificial intelligence audio imitating the U.S. president playing video games was "viral"; the synthesized "U.S. former president" A series of images of "President Trump fighting with police officers trying to arrest him" caused an uproar on social media; some institutions used artificial intelligence to exert influence. For example, the Republican National Committee released an artificial intelligence-generated ad showing what might happen if Biden is re-elected. Various disasters...
Artificial intelligence appears more and more frequently and covertly in everyone's life, quietly changing our understanding of the world. “It (artificial intelligence) brings about a mediocre dystopia.” The Guardian pointed out that due to low production costs and easy mass production, content generated by artificial intelligence is ubiquitous. “These are generative artificial intelligence. Politicians and scientists of the era should be worried."
The Associated Press stated that as the U.S. election approaches, "deep forgery" has caused many people to worry: "The images or voices of candidates can be tampered with, and voters may be purposefully manipulated. According to the 'design', they support or stay away from candidates, or even give up voting." The Guardian believes that in terms of misleading voters, the potential harm caused by artificial intelligence is "difficult to estimate." Social media bots pretending to be voters, doctored videos or images, and deceptive robocalls are emerging in an endless stream and are harder to detect.
Lisa Ripple, a researcher at the National Elections Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, USA, pointed out that in such an era, people need to screen for more than just falsehoods. Take the general election as an example. Candidates may use artificial intelligence to consciously induce voters. “The deception brought about by generative artificial intelligence will be everywhere.”
"It's going to be a world where everything is in doubt. Everyone can choose what they believe... It's a really challenging world," Ripple said.
On January 25, 2019, in Washington, the United States, a media reporter watched a "deep fake" video produced with artificial intelligence.
“Deepfakes” erode public trust
Henry Idell, a generative artificial intelligence expert at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, told the Associated Press that to some extent, it is “inevitable” that voters will be deceived by forged information. Highly simulated and massively disseminated information makes it easy for people to become confused about the authenticity of something.He emphasized that "deep forgery" will not only bring challenges to elections, but will also cause the collapse of public trust: "The proliferation of artificial intelligence 'deep fakes' may weaken public trust in what they see and hear, which will be the biggest threat. ”
The latest survey by the World Economic Forum found that the “creation” of artificial intelligence has led to a decline in public trust in authoritative institutions. The World Economic Forum quoted the "2023 Digital News Report" released by Reuters in the UK as saying that only 40% of respondents said that they trust the news reported by the media.
The "Global Risk Report 2024" released by the World Economic Forum lists "false information" as "the highest risk factor facing the world in the next two years" and "the fifth largest risk factor in the world in the next 10 years." Ben Winter, senior legal counsel at the
non-profit organization Electronic Privacy Information Center, told the Guardian that the widespread dissemination of "deep fakes" has led to greater difficulties for media reporters and others trying to spread true information.
Generative artificial intelligence has already taken the lead in confusing fakes with real ones. Last year, the number of election-related "deepfakes" grew 900% year-on-year, according to machine learning company Clarity. Cornell University professors Sarah Kreps and Doug Crenna sent tens of thousands of emails to 7,000 people, including state legislators and constituent representatives, last year. The emails were signed "Concerned." of the Voters,” were actually generated by artificial intelligence and written by humans, respectively. They received similar responses, with human-written emails receiving only a 2% higher response rate than AI-generated emails. This means that false information is “true enough.”
In order to reduce the adverse impact of artificial intelligence on the election, in February this year, 20 leading technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, OpenAI, promise. American financial media CNBC said that this shows that technology companies are aware of their responsibilities and are willing to work hard for it. However, due to the technical level of identifying "deep fakes", these efforts may be difficult to make progress in the short term. When
was asked whether he was worried about artificial intelligence helping to spread false information, openai CEO Sam Altman once implicitly said that some changes are inevitable. Experts at
told the Associated Press that the complexity and innovation of technology make it difficult to track the mastermind behind "deep forgery". "Governments and companies have not yet been able to prevent the 'flood' from coming." Adel acknowledged this: "Due to technical limitations, it may be difficult for people to accurately identify false content."
Generation Z needs to be careful of the "digital minefield"
The US "axios" news network quoted a poll last year as saying that Generation Z are more susceptible to misinformation because "they are the primary audience and participants for online information." Researchers at New York University's Center on Social Media and Politics came to the same conclusion, arguing that "young people are more likely to believe misinformation."
In the United States, 41 million Generation Z will reach voting age before the November election, accounting for one-fifth of the total American electorate. The American "Medium" News Network stated that this group of young people need to realize before entering the voting booth that they are in an "era where misinformation spreads like wildfire on social media." Artificial intelligence is affecting the decision-making of young voters, and the younger generation should think more about what they see and hear, because "seeing is not necessarily believing."
The US "Time" magazine pointed out that artificial intelligence has never been a "problem that needs to be solved", false information is. Tech companies must step up their efforts to screen for false information. Heather Fraser, an artificial intelligence assessment expert at the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies at Georgetown University in the United States, believes that "from inadvertently spreading lies to creating harmful artificial intelligence systems on the dark web, countless 'digital minefields' lie ahead for Generation Z." before the electorate.” For example, in addition to false information, the weaponization of artificial intelligence and the "illusions" brought to humans by generative artificial intelligence may affect people's judgment.
Whether people like it or not, artificial intelligence will play a role in the electoral process.Mohammad Dasti is studying for a master's degree in artificial intelligence at George Mason University in the United States. He is also a researcher on Mason's artificial intelligence strategy team. He told the "medium" news network that "cybersecurity experts will become the new soldiers"; everything in the future will revolve around artificial intelligence, and young people must "be part of the future." The European version of
"Politics" news network said that in the context of the rise of generative artificial intelligence, many young people who pursue reality have begun to try "retro", which may lead to a new trend of pursuing reality.
Greg Foster-Rice, an associate professor at Columbia College in Chicago and a member of the Artificial Intelligence Working Group, has noticed something unexpected happening among his Generation Z students in the past few months: They no longer favor Digital photography, instead, uses film development to “record reality.”
"My students are doing 'regression simulation practice'." He said, "Maybe because they think it is more closely related to reality."
Source: China Youth Daily Client
