The Artificial Intelligence (AI) era has brought incredible advancements and also amplified the challenge of misinformation.

The latter is a growing challenge as AI becomes more advanced and accessible.

The paradox is that AI can both spread and combat misinformation, making it a double-edged sword.

Combating misinformation in the AI era requires a multi-pronged approach, combining technological solutions, media literacy, and policy interventions.

AI contributes to misinformation in various ways, for example, through deepfakes and synthetic media where AI-generated videos and images can create hyper-realistic but false content, making it harder to distinguish truth from fiction.

AI-generated deepfake videos, images, and voice recordings can convincingly mimic real people, leading to identity fraud, political manipulation and fake news.

An instance is AI-generated videos of politicians making false statements and texts where AI models can generate misleading news articles, social media posts, and propaganda at a large scale.

AI-powered tools like Chabots and text generators can mass-produce misleading articles, fake reviews, and propaganda. On websites, one may use AI to create clickbait articles.

Social media algorithms, powered by AI, often promote sensationalized or false content to maximize engagement with people.

Another example is hyper-personalized misinformation whereby AI enables highly targeted disinformation campaigns by analyzing data and tailoring false narratives to specific audiences.

AI algorithms optimize engagement, sometimes amplifying sensationalized or false information over factual content and spreading misinformation quickly by posing as real users. An instance is AI-driven troll farms influencing elections.

AI models trained on biased or misleading data can reinforce and spread misinformation.

Funny as it may sound; AI sometimes “hallucinates” facts, producing incorrect or misleading responses in search engines and Chatbots, and providing biased or incorrect answers.

Chatbots and fake accounts use AI-driven bots to spread misinformation in discussions, reviews, and comment sections, making false narratives seem more credible.

Combating misinformation in the AI era requires a multi-pronged approach, combining technological solutions, media literacy, and policy interventions. AI-driven misinformation poses a complex challenge, but a multi-faceted approach combining technology, education, and regulation can mitigate its impact.

Media literacy and public awareness can be trained through critical thinking education whereby organizations must teach people how to assess sources and identify bias.

Through digital literacy campaigns, institutions like Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) can run initiatives to help people differentiate between real and fake news.

Social media can use transparency labels where platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook can tag misleading posts provide context, and refine their misinformation policies, by creating stronger content policies to regulate their content.

Another intervention is the implementation of legislative measures by creating laws that hold platforms accountable for AI-driven misinformation.

AI-powered fact-checking can help identify false claims by cross-referencing information against reliable sources.

Detection of deepfakes can be made possible by creating tools that spot AI-generated media through inconsistencies in pixels, speech, and lighting.

-The writer is a Communications and Public Relations professional based in Nairobi.