If you thought it was already difficult enough to find out which news is legitimate and which is fake, get ready because it just got a whole lot harder.
Beginning next year, California-based news station Channel 1 will roll out digital news anchors to provide stories and updates. The service will be used on free and ad supported TV and will include services like Tubo, Crackle and Pluto. To make matters worst, the frightening situation is moving extremely quickly with the network expected to begin utilizing AI anchors as early as this coming February.
EXTREMELY TROUBLING
We all know that we are way beyond the realm of pulling back on AI. Google, Twitter (X), ChatGPT and more are here and only going to expand. In some cases, the rise of AI has been beneficial – think healthcare procedures, financial activities big tech backends, etc.
But one area where we must absolutely not allow AI to takeover is the media and newsgathering process.
The public is already paranoid, mentally disheveled and clueless when it comes to what is real versus fake news. You add in the fact that there are active propaganda campaigns, bots, disinformation and misinformation being thrown around second-by-second, as well as active censorship taking place on social media platforms – we actually need MORE ways to get news now than ever before.
So when you have real-looking but fake, AI-bot style ‘people’ giving you the news, that’s at the very least troubling and can quickly get out of hand with disastrous consequences.
Afterall, whoever controls the news controls the people.
DON’T KNOW WHO TO TRUST
The biggest issue of AI integrating itself in the news world is that nobody is going to know who and now what to believe.
This isn’t just Reuters having artificial intelligence copywrite a basic news story. You now have anchormen and women actively telling their version of ‘the news.’
What’s happening is that AI is so far beyond the average human’s mental capacity to understand it that they just don’t even bother. No one knows how AI works or what goes on behind the scenes – it just is. This however only allows the powers-that-be and those that put in that information, curate it, integrate it and ultimately CREATE the news unlimited power.
RISE OF DEEPFAKES
We already have a major problem with the rise of deepfakes. Hell, they are being used in political campaign ads and idiots on social media are believing them! Remember that Queen Elizabeth II video years ago? ESPN got in hot water a few weeks ago tweeting out a doctored video of Damian Lillard as if he was reacting to a game he just played when in reality it was a clip from years ago.
Or how about this as a scary, real-world implication of AI? Criminals are now using technology that can recreate someone’s voice at 99.9% similarity to FAKE ransom calls to family members demanding they wire, Venmo or transfer money. Meanwhile the person was never in harm in the first place – it was all deceptive criminal tactics using AI tech.
The rise of AI should make us MORE nervous, should make us question everything and is all the reason why we need actual human beings and not a computer script or robots to tell us the news of the day.
An immediate solution? Push back on AI while you still can especially when it comes to content and news.
