Science & technology | Generation confusion

Producing fake information is getting easier

But that’s not the whole story, when it comes to AI

A collage illustration showing a fountain pen leaking red ink with a microchip pattern in it.
Illustration: Anthony Gerace

When it comes to disinformation, “social media took the cost of distribution to zero, and generative AI takes the cost of generation to zero,” says Renée DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory. Large language models such as GPT-4 make it easy to produce misleading news articles or social-media posts in huge quantities.

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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Generation confusion”

From the May 4th 2024 edition

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