Misinformation has become a rampant and growing problem in our current information landscape. Fake news and other forms of digitalized deception have already caused real-world harm. To quell the impact of disinformation and stop its spread, fact-checkers are turning to powerful AI solutions to help them combat the issue.
What Is AI Being Used For?
AI can be deployed in a number of ways to help fact-checkers identify potential misinformation. From searching large text archives for similar false claims to recognizing patterns in deep-fakes, AI solutions have facilitated the process to combat disinformation in the following ways:
- Sentiment Analysis: AI algorithms are used to quickly analyze text for sentiment and determine if it contains any phrases or words indicative of false information.
- Verifying Sources: AI programs are able to compare a suspicious website or social media user to authentic websites, allowing fact-checkers to quickly identify the source of a particular post or article.
- Image Analysis: Because many fake news stories use images to add credibility, AI algorithms can recognize these images and help fact-checkers quickly determine if they are real or not.
Challenges to Implementing AI Solutions
Although AI tools are proving to be an effective option for fact-checkers, they come with their own set of challenges. AI is a very powerful but still imperfect technology, which means the algorithms it is based upon can produce inaccurate results if not fine-tuned. This means that AI still requires a human-level of review and inspection to ensure the accuracy of the results.
Furthermore, some AI solutions rely on deep learning, which requires training data sets to develop their understanding of what disinformation is. As a result, any biases that are found in the training data sets can be perpetuated and magnified through the AI’s algorithms. This could have serious consequences in the way it processes and identifies misinformaiton.
The Future of AI in Fighting Disinformation
AI is already a key part of the efforts to combat disinformation. Despite its current challenges, it has already proven to be an effective tool in identifying and responding to misinformation. As AI technology and its use continues to develop it is likely that even more powerful AI solutions will be deployed to fight disinformation, allowing fact-checkers to more quickly and accurately identify and address the issue. With the increasing prevalence of digital content and our connected lives, the spread of deliberately false or distorted information has become a serious issue. To combat this problem, many organizations are turning to automated fact-checking technology powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
While AI fact-checkers can help to identify and then address potential disinformation, there still needs to be a human element at work for some of the more complex information. This is because AI algorithms are designed to search for information which matches patterns that it has been pre-programmed to. When confronted with a statement or image that does not fit its own data model, AI fact-checkers are hampered in their ability to correctly identify it.
Fact-checkers are constantly tinkering and fine-tuning these algorithms in an attempt to make them more reliable while minimizing their bias. The goal is to create a system that can detect and flag false content quickly and accurately across multiple platforms such as social media, news aggregators, and search engines.
One of the most effective strategies used by AI-powered fact-checkers is to cross-reference sources. When a piece of information is found to be false, it can be quickly and accurately sourced to the original source using this process. This means that users will be able to see past disinformation quickly and can stop its spread. However, there is still the potential for people to be tricked or misled when information is deliberately manipulated by a third party.
In addition to cross-referencing, another powerful tool at their disposal is sentiment analysis. This type of analysis lets AI fact-checkers track sentiment and tone in text and quickly flag off-topic or false assertions. This helps to prevent the spread of unsubstantiated or intentionally biased news stories as well as false claims about public figures and institutions.
AI fact-checkers can also be deployed to help detect hate speech or extremist content. Their algorithms are designed to scan the language used, such as identifying the use of certain terms, to look for offensive or extreme language. This is important in the effort to combat online radicalization and hate speech.
As AI and natural language processing technologies continue to evolve, their use in conclusively detecting disinformation will improve. Until then, fact-checkers need to be diligent in their efforts to fight misinformation with the tools they have at hand.
