Pictures may not necessarily indicate the truth! Beware of AI rumors around you and me | Digital literacy

Audit expert: Liu Xiangquan

Associate Professor, Director of the Robotics Engineering Department, University of Information Science and Technology Beijing

In recent years, information technology represented by big data and artificial intelligence (AI) has been changing with each passing day. The development of these technologies has provided more and more convenience for our work and life, but at the same time it has also produced certain negative effects. Rumors fabricated using AI tool synthesis technology have gradually appeared on the Internet.
AI rumors can not only be arranged for eye-catching and controversial topics, but can even generate pictures, audio and video that are close to reality, subverting the conventional perception that "where there is a picture, there is the truth", making it difficult to distinguish between true and false. Today, let us learn about AI rumor-mongering. AI rumor-mongering refers to the use of artificial intelligence technology to generate false information, including text, pictures, audio and video, in order to create online rumors. In recent years, there have been many cases of negative impacts caused by AI rumor-mongering.

"Guangzhou restricts food delivery", "The Xinyang City Center Gymnasium in Henan Province collapsed", "The Gansu Red Cross Society collected 1.6 million yuan in management fees for hand warmer bags"... These so-called "news" with "pictures, videos and truth" were widely circulated on the Internet and attracted the attention of a large number of netizens.

The picture shows the online rumor of "Xide County Earthquake" fabricated by AI software

All of the above cases are false information synthesized by AI software. In order to earn platform rewards or attract traffic, some criminals use AI software to automatically generate articles, and then graft them with real pictures to synthesize false pictures and videos and post them on online platforms.

This behavior will have a negative impact on society and seriously disrupt public order. Although the police urgently refuted the rumor and clarified the facts, the rumor has already surpassed the truth by a large margin, making many people believe it and causing great trouble to the parties involved.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, a document from a recently concluded case showed that criminals used AI technology to produce about 10,000 fake video news pieces in a short period of time using hot news and random online videos as material. Among them, more than 20 videos were released, involving multiple provinces and had more than one million views.

When rumors are disguised as AI, it becomes more difficult to distinguish between rumors and truth. The threshold and cost of spreading rumors are greatly reduced, and the efficiency of their dissemination and the impact they produce increase exponentially.

AI rumors have become a new network issue that needs to be addressed urgently. As a dissemination node, personal power is also very important in the process of stopping rumors. So how can we keep our eyes open, identify and resist AI rumors in our daily lives?

one

How to identify AI rumors?

0 1Observe the details of the picture

Carefully observe the details in the picture, such as color, light and shadow, clarity, etc., to see if they are consistent with the actual situation in real life. If you find any abnormalities, you should be vigilant.

0 2Verify information source

When you see information on the Internet, check whether the source of the information is reliable. Be cautious about information from unknown sources.

0 3

With the help of technology

Use technical means to detect whether images and videos have been tampered with. For example, use professional image recognition software, video analysis tools, etc.

two

How to resist AI rumors?

Raise awareness of prevention

When browsing information online, we should remain vigilant about the source of information and try to choose authoritative and trustworthy media or institutions as the source of information. We should pay attention to the logic of online news information. If we find that a piece of news information has obvious logical loopholes or contradictions, it is likely to have been tampered with or fabricated.

Don't act blindly

Remember not to blindly believe and spread unverified information. When you see suspicious information on social media or the Internet, you can verify it first or wait for official news to be released before making a judgment. Don't follow the crowd or believe one side of the story.

Consciously maintain the network ecology

We should consciously stay away from false information and not be followers or promoters of fake news. If false information is found, it should be reported promptly through various channels such as reporting hotlines and Internet reporting centers, so as to jointly maintain a clean and healthy online ecology.

No matter how advanced a machine is, it is difficult to surpass human intelligence, and AI-generated content is bound to have loopholes. In the future, when surfing the Internet, we should raise our awareness, keep our eyes open, take positive actions, and jointly build an iron wall to prevent the spread of AI rumors.