AI-powered misinformation and disinformation campaigns are a “threat of a generation” but the government’s ability to do anything about it is “quite limited,” says the prime minister’s national security adviser. Article content
Jody Thomas delivered a bleak picture about the growing fight against distorted or false information worldwide during a speech at a Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) event Friday.
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Media is already regulated to a degree in the form of newspapers, television, movies and magazines … the same should be done for social media companies and corporations.
No one private company should ever be allowed to freely control so much information that is exchanged by the public on a regular and wide basis. It would be like allowing only a single company to provide all the newspapers in Canada or a single company to provide all the television in the country and not regulate any of them.
This isn’t to say to regulate the internet … no government should ever do that … but to regulate the companies and corporations that have so much control over the free flow of information across the internet.
Regulate the social media companies … you don’t need to regulate the internet.
Classify the social media conglomerates as publishers. Make them liable for anything that goes up on their sites, the same as newspapers or TV stations.
Put the onus on them to police their sites, or pay the price for sloppy/no moderation.
The only snag is that if you regulate the big players, the disinformation cockroaches will scurry into smaller corners and multiply there.
At least when they’re all in one place, it’s easier to keep an eye on them all at once.
The true irony here is that my conspiracy-junkie mother is still on Facebook – despite the fact that it’s the single biggest surveillance network that people voluntarily contribute to daily.
If you break up the big players and all the roaches scurry to smaller corners … the less effective they become.
The fact that there are big corporations controlling information and allowing disinformation to flourish means that bad actors have a large base to work from. And the company has all the incentive to make money on it. Literally Facebook is short selling democratic society by investing in fascist and authoritarian ideology.
Having big corporate social media companies doesn’t round up and control bad actors … they give bad actors a platform and a very large blow horn to reach as many people as possible.
The “easier to keep an eye on them” mentality only works if we do something once we observe shenanigans.
Otherwise it’s just a mealy-mouthed punt in the same category as “both sides”.
I fear no matter the spin to any side, those that don’t like what they hear will just yell “fake news” and go with their own story and find many that will confirm their viewpoint online.
This is just the simple concepts beyond the over communicated world we all live in and can’t digest across the board. There’s too much to be taken in.
This is why 4th grade language and Memes can be so effective with communicating a idea to the masses and is often accepted at face value.
It is easier today than ever to re-enforce lies as the truth for various reasons. In Mark Twain’s time he said: “a lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots” while today just repeating the lie as often as possible with the mega phones of social media means the lie becomes a part of the discussion lie or not. A lie now has as much artificial weight as truth or facts in any discussion. Countering a lie with facts re-enforces these lies for their believers. It’s not going to be a fun time ahead.
It’s even harder to combat it now that Facebook is blocking news sources.
AI misinformation can be posted at light-speed, but verifiable proof and sources to counter it? No fuckin’ dice.
It’s absolutely baffling. It’s also surprising how many people fall for the misinformation in the first place, though. They’re almost like zombies.
Advancements in artificial intelligence
Stop reading right there. Nothing generated by so called “AI” is new or exciting. Language models and image synths can only do what humans do but in higher volume and lower quality. It’s the million monkeys with a million typewriters thing but with spelling and grammar checkers.
