By Erika Kuehl | Staff Writer
Don’t trust everything you see. AI is built to fool you and spread misinformation.
Recently, there’s been a TikTok trend of women commenting on what they would do if the U.S. military drafted them. From asking a sergeant for more snacks to going through a Starbucks drive-thru in a tank, women are demolishing the trend. However, as funny as it is, it began with an AI-generated speech seemingly given by President Joe Biden.
Following an interview with Nicole Schwegman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Associated Press reported that she dismissed the claims as false and noted that only the president and Congress can call for a draft.
The problem with AI-generated speech is that most people believe it. Even I thought the video of Biden was real. This becomes increasingly concerning when looking at the demographic this misinformation targets. Our parents and grandparents are the predominant users of Facebook. I’m sure we’ve all heard Uncle Steve mumble something about the 2020 election all these years later. What once was a platform to share family photos has become the epicenter for “deepfakes.”
According to CNN Business, “The study found that from August 2020 to January 2021, misinformation got six times more clicks on Facebook than posts containing factual news.”
Most people will read anything that aligns with their personal opinions. Those who spread misinformation use extremism and buzzwords to draw these audiences in. Researchers from MIT studied “deepfakes” and their relationship to social media interaction. Peter Dizikes said the surprise factor within fake news is why people engage with it more quickly than hard news.
“So while the researchers ‘cannot claim that novelty causes retweets’ by itself, as they state in the paper, the surprise people register when they see false news fits with the idea that the novelty of falsehoods may be an important part of their propagation,” Dizikes said.
There are serious rising concerns about the impact of AI on the 2024 presidential election. The video of Biden seemingly calling women to the draft is the first sign of weaponizing AI. Ill-intentioned people can easily use this technology to pretend they are political candidates and inform them of a policy change that isn’t legitimate. AI is a serious threat to democracy.
It’s difficult to conceptualize a solution to propaganda on social media. However, what we can do is check the source of the media we consume. Is this a 35-year-old filming commentary in their mom’s basement or an article from The Wall Street Journal? Additionally, having conversations with friends and family who fall victim to fake news is an important step in stopping the spread.
So, women, here’s the real news: We are not going to get drafted.
