Banner image: Image of a polling place generated using artificial intelligence. (资料来源:Adobe Stock)

8月. 18, former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump posted an unusual endorsement to his social media account on Truth Social. 在一系列照片中, he included an image of pop megastar Taylor Swift wearing an Uncle Sam hat and declaring: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”

问题是:这不是真的. Swift hadn’t, and still hasn’t, endorsed a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. 图像可能是 人工智能生成.

凯西·费斯勒副教授 信息科学系 他认为，人工智能在政治领域的崛起是一种令人担忧的趋势. 这个月, 例如, NPR记者霍静南对Grok进行了测试, 这是社交媒体公司X推出的一个新的人工智能平台. 她能够 利用平台 to create surprisingly realistic security camera images of people stuffing envelopes into ballot drop boxes in the dead of night.

“It’s not like fake images weren't a thing before this year,” Fiesler said. “不同的是，现在做起来容易多了. 人工智能正在使这种糟糕的行为民主化.”

To help voters navigate this new and perilous election information landscape, 今天的科罗拉多大学 spoke to Fiesler and other experts in AI and media literacy. 他们中包括加州大学信息系统教授Kai拉森 利兹商学院托比·霍普，大学的副教授 广告、公共关系与媒体设计系. 

These experts discuss how you can find out if a photo you’re seeing online is the real deal—and how to talk to friends and family members who are spreading misinformation.

是的，人工智能真的那么好

在过去, 人工智能生成的图像通常会留下“人工制品”,比如有六个手指的手, 眼尖的观众可以发现. 但在静止图像中，这些错误变得越来越容易修复. 视频也不甘落后, 说Fiesler, who covers the ethics of AI in a course she’s teaching this fall called “Ethical and Policy Dimensions of Information and 技术.”

“很快的某个时候, you will be able to see an AI-generated video of the head of the CDC giving a press conference, 它会完全欺骗你,”她说。.

同时, the algorithms that govern social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram can trap users in downward spirals of misinformation, 拉森说,. 他是2021年那本书的合著者 商业自动化机器学习.

“Algorithms, at least historically, have been driving people into these rabbit holes,” 拉森说,. 如果你愿意相信一条错误的信息, then the algorithm is now finding out that you like conspiracy theories. 所以为什么不给你多喂点呢?”

科技可能救不了博彩平台推荐

现在有很多公司提供这样的服务, 他们声称, 可以检测人工智能生成的内容, 包括假图片. But just like human eyes, those tools can be easily tricked, 拉森说,. Some critics of AI have also urged tech companies to add digital “watermarks” to AI content. These watermarks would flag photos or text that had originally come from an AI platform. 

“The problem with watermarks is that they are often fairly easy to get rid of,” 拉森说,. “Or you can just find another large language model that doesn’t use them.“谷歌它

When it comes to AI images, a little searching online can go a long way, Fiesler said.

8月初, Trump’s campaign accused Kamala Harris’ team of using AI to make the crowd size look bigger in a photo of one of her rallies. 费斯勒在谷歌上快速搜索了这张照片. She discovered that numerous news organizations had covered the same event, 还有几十张其他的照片和视频, 都显示了同样的一大群人.

“谷歌一下，”费斯勒说. 找出:新闻机构是否在报道同一事件? 还有其他照片吗??”

霍普，一个研究假新闻的学者 他更喜欢称之为“反媒体”， cautions social media users to beware of posts that try to trigger our worst impulses. In 2016, troll farms in Russia posted thousands of misleading ads about the presidential election to social media. 许多人试图 挖掘负面情绪使美国的左右两派相互对立.

“We can evaluate a piece of information and ask ourselves: ‘Is this trying to make me angry? 你是想惹我生气吗?’”霍普说. “If so, we may want to ask: ‘Is there a possibility that this might be misleading?’”

朋友和家人呢?

It’s a familiar problem for many people—a friend or family member who won’t stop sharing misleading social media posts. 霍普说，与这样的爱人打交道可能是一个雷区. Research shows that simply challenging people on their false beliefs (say, (地球是平的)通常不会改变他们的想法. 这甚至可能使他们加倍下注.

He and other researchers have experimented with giving social media users “媒介素养干预或者博彩app推荐如何区分事实和虚构的基本信息. 这样的干预是有帮助的，但没有霍普希望的那么多. 

“我是清醒地这么想的, empathetic and caring discussions with those who are important to us about media literacy can be important for helping people use different strategies when they're on social media platforms,他说. “但没有什么灵丹妙药.”

从长远来看，博彩平台推荐能做些什么?

有什么办法可以帮助减缓网上误导性人工智能图像的传播吗?

Fiesler sees an urgent need for the federal government to step in to regulate the rapidly growing AI industry. 她说起点可以是 《博彩app推荐》 which the White House’s Office of 科学 and 技术 Policy drafted in 2022. 

这个蓝图, 哪些还没有通过法律, includes recommendations like: “You should know that an automated system is being used and understand how and why it contributes to outcomes that impact you.”

老板霍普, 对他来说, believes that a lot of the responsibility for stopping political misinformation comes down to another group: politicians. It’s time to cool down the temperature of political discussions in the United States.

“There’s a role for our political leaders to discourage the use of hyper-partisan, 分裂的信息,霍普说. “Embracing this type of misleading information creates conditions that are fairly ripe for its spread.”