Disinformation, Truth and AI
“Did God really say that…?” This is a paraphrase of the question the serpent posed to Eve in the Garden of Eden as he mounted a disinformation campaign that led to the fall of humanity. Suffice it to say that disinformation has been around a long time. From the 3rd century BC deception and disinformation teachings of Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu in "The Art of War," to Octavian’s smear campaign against Mark Antony in 44 AD Rome, to the Nazi’s disinformation efforts in World War 2 that, among other things, contributed to the death of millions of Jews, disinformation has always been a serious thing.
Disinformation is false and misleading information that is deliberately meant to deceive. It’s spread with the intent to do harm. Misinformation is false and misleading information spread without malice. It’s getting the facts wrong. You’ll find that the term misinformation is most often used since we don’t always know the intent of the spreader once a piece of information is deemed to be false. Also, the term deepfake is used to describe an AI-generated image, video or audio recording showing a person doing or saying something they did not do or say. It is intentionally created to deceive in more impactful and believable ways.
So, why is this a thing? Well, every human being is capable of doing both good and bad. One minute we’re expressing love for others through acts of kindness, compassion, and service. The next, we’re tearing others down for selfish and destructive reasons. Even worse, there are some really bad actors out there. Sociopaths, narcissists, dictators, and criminals are in no short order on a planet with nearly 8 billion people. These are more realities demonstrated over thousands of years of history.
What is new is how these practices can now be super-charged through emerging technologies. The combination of social media and artificial intelligence puts a level of power and reach in every single person’s hands that was unheard of in the past. Using these technologies, people can now spread false information at a speed and scale that was unimaginable just a few years ago.
Examples abound. Like the deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling his forces to surrender to the Russians (pictured above); the fake Joe Biden robocall urging people not to vote in the New Hampshire primary; and the rather poor-quality fake image of a Pentagon bombing that briefly sent the S&P 500 down $500 billion in 2023.
Current disinformation statics are sobering. According to a leading identity verification firm, the number of deepfake cases rose ten-fold from 2022 to 2023 – just one year.[1] Another firm specializing in deepfake detection and media intelligence estimates the global economic impact of deepfakes will skyrocket from $10B in 2022 to $500B in 2030.[2] And these numbers don’t even scratch the surface when one considers the impact that deepfakes could have on, say, this year’s elections. 2024 is a historic year where more than 2 billion people are expected to go to the polls in 64 countries.[3]
Some people believe the disinformation problem is so serious that it poses a danger to society itself. MIT professor Sinan Aral believes “we are teetering on the brink of the end of reality where we can’t tell what is real from what is fake, and that's incredibly dangerous.”[4] This is partly because of the liar’s dividend, a phenomenon where the existence of synthetic media and the capability to create realistic yet false content enable malicious actors to sow doubt about the authenticity of real information. This dividend fundamentally alters the dynamics of trust and truth in society.
According to UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid, we have created alternate realities. He wonders how you have a society, how you have a democracy, if you can't agree on basic facts? “We can disagree on what to do with the facts,” he says, “but we should not disagree on actual facts.”[5]
In the Christian faith, truth matters – and it matters a lot. Jesus described himself as the way, the truth, and the life, and the apostle John described Jesus as full of grace and truth. The Old Testament affirmed the importance of truth when a psalmist wrote that unfailing love and truth walk before God as attendants and the author of Proverbs included dishonesty twice in the list of seven things the Lord detests.
Unfortunately, the motivations to lie and deceive are plentiful and powerful, including financial gain, increased power and influence, political gain, and warfighting advantages. And then there’s that pesky human nature thing we mentioned before. The prophet Jeremiah wrote thousands of years ago that the human heart is the most deceitful of all things. This couldn’t be truer today. There seems to be no shortage of people willing to deceive and be deceived. Our itching eyes and ears want only to see and hear what agrees with our worldview.
The influence of the Christian faith on many cultures has become so prevalent that, according to one author, values like truth, equality, justice, and compassion have become like the air we breath.[6] Something so pervasive that they are taken for granted. Followers of Jesus Christ need to recommit to these values – especially in the face of tremendous pressures to do otherwise – including doing all we can to ensure that the design, development, testing, deployment, use, and governance of AI reflects these values. We should also actively work to counter the menace of disinformation. A list of basic steps we can take towards this end is as follows.
Continually remind yourself of your moral compass. This has been shown to dramatically improve people’s behavior. Asking questions like “Is this the right thing to do?” can go a long way when you’re active on social media platforms. Decide not to be a disinformer.
Slow your roll. Don’t be so anxious to respond to things you read and see on social media, especially if it’s something that makes your blood boil. First, take the time to investigate such posts and respond only after you have verified their accuracy and calmed yourself down. Also, verify and check the source before even considering sharing something.
Check your itching ears, humble yourself, and get outside of your echo chamber. Admit that you’re inclined to hear and see what you want to hear and see (i.e., your confirmation bias) and adjust your perspective accordingly.
Get educated. Create a collection of resources, a toolkit, including fact checking websites and other materials that you rely on. Improve your ability to analyze and evaluate media critically. Understanding how media is created and the motivations behind it can help you discern between legitimate news and misleading or false information.
Once you have determined that a piece of media is false, pass on your discovery to others. Share what you found with links to fact-checking or debunking sites.
Continually encourage others to do these things.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Top KYC Trends 2024 - Expert Roundtable | The Sumsuber.
[2] (1) Rijul Gupta on X: "New analysis we're working on at @DeepMedia_AI . @elonmusk , @sama - what are y'alls thoughts on the economic impact of the proliferation of Deepfake AI over the next 5 years? #deepfake #ai #safety https://t.co/NPSCIX4dm1" / X (twitter.com).
[3] Why 2024 is a record year for elections around the world | World Economic Forum (weforum.org).
[4] How we can protect truth in the age of misinformation | Sinan Aral (youtube.com).
[5] AI's Disinformation Problem | AI IRL (youtube.com).
[6] The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality (Discover the Christian roots of the values we prize in western society): Glen Scrivener: 9781784987497: Amazon.com: Books.