Indiana University will use a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of defense to study AI-generated misinformation and radicalizing messages.
Professor Yong-Yeol Ahn, lead investigator for the study, said AI-generated content could pose a serious threat to society.
“AI can now mimic all the voices, your voice, or produce like videos, and it can read through a lot of texts. So that means it can be a really powerful weapon, in a way, if a country is trying to create a disinformation campaign,” Ahn said.
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IU researchers will lead a team of experts from different disciplines through the 5-year study. Ahn thinks IU was chosen to lead the study because of the university's history with misinformation research and its diverse fields of expertise.
The study will examine the science of resonance. Resonance is the way people's opinions are influenced by content they agree with or relate to personally.
Ahn said that as AI develops, it could produce resonating messages that are personalized using data mining. He said this resonating misinformation could further polarize groups.
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"I think most of us are quite worried about AI's potential, and what we expect to find is like, how dangerous AI could be, in terms of like, producing this targeted regiment messages that can potentially radicalize a group of people," Ahn said.
Ahn said people can protect themselves from targeted misinformation by paying attention to the media they interact with. If something resonates, it should be scrutinized and questioned rather than blindly believed.
"You should always have a critical mindset regarding whatever you encounter, especially those messages that really kind of strengthen your existing views," Ahn said.
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