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How the UN is combating disinformation in the age of AI
- YouTube

How the UN is combating disinformation in the age of AI

Disinformation is running rampant in today’s world. The internet, social media, and AI — combined with declining trust in major institutions — have created an ecosystem ripe for exploitation by nefarious actors aiming to spread false and hateful narratives. Meanwhile, governments worldwide are struggling to get big tech companies to take substantive steps to combat disinformation. And at the global level, the UN’s priorities are also being hit hard by these trends.

“We can't bring about and generate stability in fragile environments if populations are turning against our peacekeepers as a result of lies being spread against them online. We can't make progress on climate change if people are being led to believe first of all, that maybe it doesn't even exist, or that it's not as bad as they thought, or that it's actually too late and there's nothing that they can do about it,” Melissa Fleming, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, told GZERO in a conversation at the SDG Media Zone during the 79th UN General Assembly.

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Hacked displayed on a mobile with binary code with in the background Anonymous mask. On 9 August 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.

Jonathan Raa / Nurphoto via Reuters

Old MacDonald had a Russian bot farm

On July 9, the US Department of Justice announced it disrupted a Russian bot farm that was actively using generative AI to spread disinformation worldwide. The department seized two domain names and probed 1,000 social media accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) in collaboration with the FBI as well as Canadian and Dutch authorities. X voluntarily suspended the accounts, the government said.

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Cyabra data of trump trial

Ari Winkleman

Battle of the bots: Trump trial

Talk about courting attention. Former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his hush money trial on 34 felony counts captured the public’s imagination – some to rejoice, others to reject – and much of the debate played out on X, formerly known as Twitter.

But, dearest gentle reader, we humans were not alone. Internet bots also immediately got to work to manipulate the online conversation. As a part of our ongoing investigation into how disinformation is affecting the 2024 election and US democracy, we partnered with Cyabra, a disinformation detection firm, to investigate how fake profiles online responded to the Trump trial.

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Graph of real and fake account activity on AOC's X account.

Ari Winkleman

Battle of the bots: AOC under attack

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is most well-known for her progressive politics. But in today’s online world, being well-known on social media, especially as a polarizing political figure, is both a gift and a curse. When these accounts post about controversial topics, like the war in Gaza or college campus protests, they are likely to be targeted by misinformation campaigns by bots.
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A man views a computer screen displaying the AI-crafted speech of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, to call for votes ahead of the general elections in Karachi, Pakistan, in early February 2024.

REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

AI election safeguards aren’t great

The Center for Countering Digital Hate has been testing the most popular AI tools to see if they’re able to be manipulated to generate election disinformation despite public promises and usage rules to the contrary.
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Jess Frampton

Tracking anti-Navalny bot armies

In an exclusive investigation into online disinformation surrounding online reaction to Alexei Navalny's death, GZERO asks whether it is possible to track the birth of a bot army. Was Navalny's tragic death accompanied by a massive online propaganda campaign? We investigated, with the help of a company called Cyabra.

Alexei Navalny knew he was a dead man the moment he returned to Moscow in January 2021. Vladimir Putin had already tried to kill him with the nerve agent Novichok, and he was sent to Germany for treatment. The poison is one of Putin’s signatures, like pushing opponents out of windows or shooting them in the street. Navalny knew Putin would try again.

Still, he came home.

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Al Gore's take on American democracy, climate action, and "artificial insanity"

Transcript

Listen: In this episode of GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with former US Vice President Al Gore on the sidelines of Davos in Switzerland. Gore, an individual well-versed in navigating contested elections, shared his perspectives on the current landscape of American politics and, naturally, his renowned contributions to climate action.

While the mainstage discussions at the World Economic Forum throughout the week delved into topics such as artificial intelligence, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and climate change, behind the scenes, much of the discourse was centered on profound concerns about the upcoming 2024 US election and the state of American democracy. The US presidential election presents substantial risks, particularly with Donald Trump on the path to securing the GOP nomination.

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Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, an author and analyst, and a GZERO AI guest columnist, is seen here at the Digital Life Design innovation conference.

Matthias Balk/dpa via Reuters Connect

Azeem Azhar explores the future of AI

AI was all the rage at Davos this year – and for good reason. As we’ve covered each week in our weekly GZERO AI newsletter, artificial intelligence is impacting everything from regulatory debates and legal norms to climate change, disinformation, and identity theft. GZERO Media caught up with Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, an author and analyst, and a GZERO AI guest columnist, for his insights on the many issues facing the industry.

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