misinformation (Page 2)

Latest in misinformation

Elon Musk amplified a plagiarized article bylined by a fake writer. The original source? An alt-right website riddled with conspiracies.

Elon Musk Tweets Plagiarized Article Bylined by Fake Writer

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Been reading any good Russian propaganda lately? According to the misinformation watchdog NewsGuard, top AI chatbots certainly have.

Artificial Intelligence

Top Chatbots are Parroting Russian Propaganda, Report Finds

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

An Irish man sued Microsoft after MSN circulated an AI article falsely accusing him of sexual misconduct, per a New York Times investigation.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Sued For AI Article Accusing Innocent Man of Sexual Misconduct

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

An AI-generated image of a young disabled veteran went viral on Facebook. A lot of folks — particularly older men — think she's the real deal.

Facebook Page Uses AI-Generated Image of Disabled Veteran to Farm Engagement

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

A tiny cohort of "supersharers" spread the majority of fake news on Twitter during the 2020 election. They were mostly older white women.

Scientists Find That a Tiny Proportion of People Spread Almost All the Fake News, and They Turn Out to Be Exactly Who You’d Expect

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

AI-generated media is leading the way in visual disinformation on the web, a recent study led by Google researchers found.

Even Google’s Own Researchers Admit AI Is Top Source of Misinformation Online

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

A new study puts to rest the claim that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are causing cardiac arrest in young men and often killing them.

RX and Medicine

Conspiracy Theorists Said People Who Got the COVID Vaccine Would Be Dropping Like Flies. That Hasn’t Remotely Happened

By Noor Al-Sibai

Former president Donald Trump took to Truth Social to dismiss unflattering — and real — videos of himself as AI-generated fakes.

Artificial Intelligence

Donald Trump Is Just Calling Any Video He Doesn’t Like “AI” Now

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

MAGA influencers are using generative AI to fabricate photos of Donald Trump alongside smiling Black voters, a BBC report reveals.

Artificial Intelligence

MAGA Uses AI to Invent Pictures of Trump With Black People

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Today in AI ouroboros vertigo: an AI content farm swindled our reporting about misleading AI-generated fakes at Sports Illustrated.

Artificial Intelligence

An AI Site Ripped Off Our Reporting About AI Ripoffs

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The announcement from the US Federal Communications Commission comes just a week after AI scam calls that impersonated President Joe Biden.

FCC Moves to Make Robocalls With AI-Synthesized Voices Illegal

By Frank Landymore

The ongoing presidential campaign in Argentina is packed with enough chaos as it is — and now, AI has found its way into the mix.

Artificial Intelligence

Argentinian Presidential Candidate Uses AI-Generated Campaign Poster That Gives Him Gruesome Thumb

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

X CEO Elon Musk said that any posts that are corrected by CommunityNotes become ineligible for revenue share.

Elon Musk Promises to Stop Paying People to Post Misinformation on Twitter

By Sharon Adarlo

German camera maker Leica has just unveiled its latest M11-P camera that comes equipped with tech to prove it wasn't AI generated.

Artificial Intelligence

This Anti-AI Camera Fights Deepfakes by Certifying Each Picture It Takes

By Frank Landymore

Amazon's Alexa has been caught falsely saying that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen by a massive amount of election fraud."

Robots and Machines

Amazon’s Alexa Goes MAGA, Claims 2020 Election Was Stolen

By Sharon Adarlo

Google's search AI thinks you can melt eggs. Its source? ChatGPT. Cheers to the end of the internet's usability!

Google’s Search AI Says You Can Melt Eggs. Its Source Will Make You Facepalm

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Google "Tank Man," and you might be met with a fake, AI-generated "Tank Man Selfie" as the search engine's top — and featured! — result.

Google Made an AI-Generated Fake the First Result for “Tank Man”

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to Twitter to express his concern that AI might meddle with elections and the democratic process.

Sam Altman Fears AI’s Effect on Elections

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Less than six months after its public release, OpenAI has shut down its "AI classifier," its in-house AI-detection tool. Why? It didn't work.

OpenAI Shutters AI Detection Tool Due to “Low Rate of Accuracy”

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Bill Gates is worried about the role that AI and AI-generated content will play in elections and democracy. And, well, the guy's got a point.

Artificial Intelligence

Bill Gates Says AI Could “Undermine Elections and Democracy”

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Someone used Midjourney to AI-generate images of politicians cheating on their spouses — though claims that it was well-intentioned.

Artificial Intelligence

Guy Banned by Midjourney for Generating Images of Politicians Cheating

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The unholy union of SEO spam and AI-generated muck is here. And at the same time, reality, unfortunately, might be going right out the door.

Artificial Intelligence

An AI Is Inventing Fake Quotes by Real People and Publishing Them Online

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Forget the gas masks and Spam, and maybe try buying some encyclopedias to prepare for the AI-driven information apocalypse instead.

Artificial Intelligence

Guy Buys Physical Encyclopedia Set to Prepare for Information Doomsday

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

AI-generated joke images of toddlers wearing what looked like Target-peddled Satanic merchandise went viral in far-right social media circles.

Artificial Intelligence

Idiots Fooled by AI-Generated Pics of Satanic Merchandise at Target

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Google "Johannes Vermeer," and you'll be met with an AI-generated rendition of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as the top search result.

Google’s Top Result for “Johannes Vermeer” Is an AI-Generated Version of “Girl With a Pearl Earring”

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

A likely AI-generated image of a fake explosion at the Pentagon garnered so much attention on Twitter that the stock market briefly fell.

Artificial Intelligence

Seemingly AI-Generated Image of Pentagon Explosion Caused Stock Market to Dip

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

The Irish Times just apologized for publishing an AI-generated hoax article — bylined by an entirely fake AI-generated "journalist," no less.

Artificial Intelligence

Newspaper Apologizes for Accidentally Running Deranged AI-Generated Article

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

NewsGuard was able to identify 49 content farms producing material appearing to be either mostly or entirely AI-generated.

Artificial Intelligence

Dozens of News Sites are Using AI Chatbots to Churn Out Questionable Content

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Midjourney is now discontinuing its free trial offers. But its CEO says the move is unrelated to the viral convincing fakes of celebrities the AI generated.

Artificial Intelligence

Midjourney Nixes Free Generations After AI Pope Images Go Viral

By Frank Landymore

According to one conspiracy-minded Congressional Republican, there's a chance that his employer is reverse-engineering alien technology salvaged from UFOs.

Congressman Claims the US Government Has “Reverse-Engineered” Alien Tech from UFOs

By Noor Al-Sibai

OpenAI's powerful, controversial ChatGPT is, it seems, creepily good at writing misinformation when prompted to do so by a human.

ChatGPT Is Freakishly Good at Spitting Out Misinformation on Purpose

By Noor Al-Sibai

As if being verified couldn't be more worthless or AIs more dubious, beware verified Twitter accounts with AI-generated faces pretending to be real people.

Artificial Intelligence

Twitter Is “Verifying” Accounts With AI-Generated Faces

By Frank Landymore

MSN has deleted some of their garbage fake news, but continues to publish fake stories about the Loch Ness Monster, haunted toys, and killer asteorids.

Artificial Intelligence

MSN Deletes Fake News About Mermaids and Bigfoot, Runs New Story About Haunted Ventriloquist Dummy

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

MSN peddled a story about Grimes and Elon Musk based on a fake tweet. Now it's boosting another article that claims a "dark beast" was spotted on Mars.

MSN Fired Its Human Journalists and Replaced Them With AI That Publishes Fake News About Mermaids and Bigfoot

By Frank Landymore

According to a new report, TikTok is absolutely terrible at filtering out harmful misinformation and disinformation regarding elections and politics.

Research Confirms TikTok Is a Cesspool of Misinformation

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Researchers at Boston University have staunchly denied that they developed a hyper-deadly COVID-19 strain in their labs using gain of function research.

Scientists Deny Making Deadly Horror COVID in a Lab

By Noor Al-Sibai

In a resurfaced audio clip, television personality and Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz says that thinks that some incest is fine, actually.

Audio Surfaces of Dr. Oz Saying Some Incest Is Okay, and Also His Daughters Don’t Like How He Smells

By Maggie Harrison Dupré

Retired US general Barry McCaffrey shared video game footage online, allegedly showing Ukrainian air defense systems shooting down Russian jets.

Retired General Accidentally Tweets Video Game Footage Thinking It’s Real

By Victor Tangermann

The US Food and Drug Administration's newest head, Robert Califf, M.D., says pandemic misinformation is the US' leading cause of death.

Health & Medicine

Head of FDA Says Misinformation Is Now the Leading Cause of Death

By Lonnie Lee Hood

In an interview with Science, cosmologist and busy Twitter user Katie Mack laid out some of the weirdest and silliest "facts" about space she's seen.

Cosmologist Lists the Stupidest Things People Believe About Space

By Victor Tangermann

He posted a video on his Instagram on Sunday wherein he addressed recent criticism that his show has spread COVID misinformation.

Joe Rogan Issues Absolutely Terrible Apology for COVID Misinfo

By Tony Ho Tran

Joe Rogan Ridiculed for Astonishingly Stupid Climate Change Interview

Joe Rogan Ridiculed for Astonishingly Stupid Climate Change Interview

By Tony Ho Tran

Podcaster Joe Rogan is once again in the news for being an anti-science dimwit — and even a quick perusal of his past shows that this isn't the first time.

If You Think Joe Rogan Is Credible, This Bizarre Clip of Him Yelling at a Scientist Will Probably Change Your Mind

By Noor Al-Sibai

A group of 270 doctors and educators have signed a letter calling on Spotify to start moderating misinformation, particularly on the Joe Rogan Experience.

Hundreds of Medical Experts Sign Letter Condemning Joe Rogan

By Victor Tangermann

A new interview about COVID disinformation research finds that people who believe coronavirus conspiracies are more likely to get sick.

Study Finds That People Who Believe COVID Myths Are More Likely to Catch COVID

By Lonnie Lee Hood

Vaccine misinformation on TikTok is spreading like, well, something viral.

How Are These Horrible Vaccine TikToks Fooling So Many People?

By Dan Robitzski

Author and conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf has been suspended indefinitely from Twitter after spreading anti-vaccine misinformation on the platform.

Twitter Bans Prominent Anti-Vaxxer and Conspiracy Theorist

By Victor Tangermann

Facebook, a company that's been around since 2004, announced on October 12, 2020 that it will prohibit posts that deny or distort the Holocaust.

Facebook Waited Until October 12, 2020 to Ban Holocaust Denial

By Dan Robitzski

According to a new report, Facebook only flags about 16 percent of the medical misinformation that gets posted on the platform.

Facebook Only Catches 16 Percent of Medical Misinformation Posts

By Dan Robitzski

Anderson Cooper recently interviewed MyPillow creator and medical scam pusher Mike Lindell over a compound he's claiming without evidence can cure COVID-19.

Watch a Guy Selling a Fake COVID-19 Cure Get Absolutely Destroyed

By Dan Robitzski

There's so much misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic swirling around online that even the famous fact-checking organization Snopes is overwhelmed.

Even Snopes Has Been Overwhelmed by Coronavirus Misinformation

By Dan Robitzski

Social media has made it easier than ever to effortlessly connect with friends, share photos, and rapidly propagate misinformation.

Health & Medicine

Study: Social Media Users More Likely to Be Misinformed About Vaccines

California has banned the creation of political deepfakes — clips manipulated to make it look like a politician said or did something they didn't.

Artificial Intelligence

New Law Makes It Illegal to Distribute Political Deepfakes

By Kristin Houser

Facebooks is changing how it ranks "miracle cures" and unproven medical treatments — but will it be enought to stem the medical misinformation tide?

Facebook Is Finally Fighting Its Pseudoscience “Miracle Cure” Content Problem

By Kristin Houser

Google has expanded its "Be Internet Awesome" program to include media literacy activities designed to help kids tell if something is "fake news."

Google Is Trying to Teach Kids How to Spot Fake News

By Kristin Houser

According to a new study, the growth of the number of people who think the Earth is flat is directly tied to the growth of conspiracy theories on YouTube.

New Research: YouTube Caused The “Flat Earther” Epidemic

By Jon Christian

The 77th Brigade of the British Army is responsible for creating viral marketing campaigns that promote the military's interests around the world.

The British Army has an Official Viral Content Division

By Dan Robitzski

Lawmakers: Deepfakes Could “Undermine Public Trust” in “Objective Depictions of Reality”

Artificial Intelligence

Lawmakers: Deepfakes Could “Undermine Public Trust” in “Objective Depictions of Reality”

By Jon Christian

Recently-acquired Facebook documents reveal what it would take to get kicked off facebook for hates peech or propaganda.

Here’s What It Takes to Get Kicked off Facebook (Hint: It’s A Lot)

By Dan Robitzski

Massive Study of Fake News May Reveal Why It Spreads So Easily

Massive Study of Fake News May Reveal Why It Spreads So Easily

Is Organic Really Better? 4 Food Myths Debunked By Science

Is Organic Really Better? 4 Food Myths Debunked By Science

By Victor Tangermann

climate change fake news misinformation nasa

NASA’s Former Chief Scientist: America Is “Under Siege” from Fake Climate Change News

By Chelsea Gohd

Did NASA Just Accidentally Discover Warp Drive/EM Drive? (Spoiler Alert: No.)

From Quarks to Quasars

Did NASA Just Accidentally Discover Warp Drive/EM Drive? (Spoiler Alert: No.)

By Jolene Creighton