NewsGuard, a platform that aims to combat misinformation, in its recent report has uncovered a staggering 725 websites disseminating news and information generated by Artificial Itelligence (AI) algorithms, often operating without sufficient human oversight.
This organization that is actively monitoring false narratives propagated by AI-powered tools noted that from these dubious AI-generated platforms to falsified images crafted by AI image generators, the proliferation of generative AI tools has empowered both content farms and distributors of misinformation.
The newly established AI Tracking Center aims to shed light on the utilization of generative AI in amplifying misinformation campaigns and unreliable news sources. This initiative includes a compilation of reports, insights, and debunkings by NewsGuard concerning artificial intelligence.
As of now, NewsGuard has pinpointed 725 Unreliable AI-Generated news and information websites, referred to as “UAINS,” spanning across 15 different languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai and Turkish.
“These websites often sport generic titles like iBusiness Day or Ireland Top News, masking their lack of human oversight and heavy reliance on bot-generated content. Despite appearing as legitimate news outlets to consumers, these sites churn out articles predominantly or entirely crafted by bots, deviating from conventional journalistic practices involving human intervention,” the platform reported.
The report notes that articles produced by these AI-driven platforms encompass a wide array of topics such as politics, technology, entertainment, and travel, frequently interspersed with false claims and fabricated narratives.
“Many of these websites sustain themselves through programmatic advertising, where ads are automatically served without consideration for the credibility of the hosting website. Consequently, reputable brands inadvertently fund these unreliable sites, inadvertently fueling their proliferation. Unless stringent measures are taken by advertisers to blacklist untrustworthy domains, the economic incentive for creating such sites persists.”