Artificial Intelligence is capable of many feats: from helping scientists to develop medicines and detecting diseases to identifying 143 new geoglyphs in the Nazca desert, as well as learning how to defeat 98.8% of the players in the StarCraft II video game. However, there are a number of researchers who, throughout the decade, have been warning about the dangers of an unaware use of technology.
When news falls into the hands of an AI, the results can be worrisome, as can be seen on the NotRealNews.net website. The project is a creation of Big Bird, a company specialized in the development of technology. The objective behind the page, according to the organization, is to show that AI can be an ally of journalists.
According to Big Bird, developed AI is capable of generating a kind of pre-made models of articles, with journalists needing to edit them with information that is factual. The company says it does not want to take journalists off their jobs, it just wants to help them gain more time to look for substantial information.
The company's website is a demonstration of its AI capabilities. Although they look realistic and convincing in most cases, the articles that technology writes are fake. The issue becomes problematic when the page does not clearly indicate that the content is not true.
It is true that the name of the website implies that we are not dealing with real content. However, at a time when a sufficiently striking title is enough to make viral news on social networks, the Big Bird project can lead to (truly) false information sharing. When browsing NotRealNews.net it is possible to notice that many of the news may even have some similarities with reality, something that can lead some more unwary readers to believe the contents.
To avoid reading and sharing news online that are not true, there are some recommendations to take into account, in addition to not having NotRealNews.net or websites as a news source that indicate that the content they produce strira.
The Ethical Journalism Network, for example, shares some tips. Readers should keep an eye out for suspicious elements, such as strange addresses, news without an author or date or stories that only appear on a given page. In addition, fact-checking platforms are good allies. The Global Investigative Journalism Network also presents some techniques that you can use when you come across news that you suspect is false.
