As the Goodbye Meta AI meme proved, many of us vastly overestimate our abilities to discern what\u2019s true online \u2013 but spotting misinformation isn\u2019t something we can do alone<\/p>\n
\u2022 <\/a>Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a wild world out there online, with dis- and misinformation flying about at pace. I\u2019m part-way through writing a book about the history of fake news, so I\u2019m well aware that people making stuff up is not new. But what is new is the reach that troublemakers have, whether their actions are deliberate or accidental.<\/p>\n Social media and the wider web changed the game for mischief-makers, and made it easier for the rest of us to be inadvertently hoodwinked online (see: the odd \u201cGoodbye Meta AI\u201d trend<\/a> that I wrote about this week for the Guardian). The rise of generative AI since the release of ChatGPT in 2022 has also supercharged the risks. While early research suggests our biggest fears about the impact of AI-generated deepfakes on elections are unfounded, the overall information environment is a puzzling one.<\/p>\n