As misinformation exploded during India\u2019s four-day conflict with Pakistan, social media users turned to an AI chatbot for verification \u2014 only to encounter more falsehoods, underscoring its unreliability as a fact-checking tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With tech platforms reducing human fact-checkers, users are increasingly relying on AI-powered chatbots \u2014 including xAI\u2019s Grok, OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, and Google\u2019s Gemini \u2014 in search of reliable information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHey @Grok, is this true?\u201d has become a common query on Elon Musk\u2019s platform X, where the AI assistant is built in, reflecting the growing trend of seeking instant debunks on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the responses are often themselves riddled with misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grok \u2014 now under renewed scrutiny for inserting \u201cwhite genocide,\u201d a far-right conspiracy theory, into unrelated queries \u2014 wrongly identified old video footage from Sudan\u2019s Khartoum airport as a missile strike on Pakistan\u2019s Nur Khan airbase during the country\u2019s recent conflict with India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unrelated footage of a building on fire in Nepal was misidentified as \u201clikely\u201d showing Pakistan\u2019s military response to Indian strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe growing reliance on Grok as a fact-checker comes as X and other major tech companies have scaled back investments in human fact-checkers,\u201d McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur research has repeatedly found that AI chatbots are not reliable sources for news and information, particularly when it comes to breaking news,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NewsGuard\u2019s research found that 10 leading chatbots were prone to repeating falsehoods, including Russian disinformation narratives and false or misleading claims related to the recent Australian election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a recent study of eight AI search tools, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University found that chatbots were \u201cgenerally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn\u2019t answer accurately, offering incorrect or speculative answers instead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When AFP fact-checkers in Uruguay asked Gemini about an AI-generated image of a woman, it not only confirmed its authenticity but fabricated details about her identity and where the image was likely taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grok recently labeled a purported video of a giant anaconda swimming in the Amazon River as \u201cgenuine,\u201d even citing credible-sounding scientific expeditions to support its false claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reality, the video was AI-generated, AFP fact-checkers in Latin America reported, noting that many users cited Grok\u2019s assessment as evidence the clip was real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such findings have raised concerns as surveys show that online users are increasingly shifting from traditional search engines to AI chatbots for information gathering and verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shift also comes as Meta announced earlier this year it was ending its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, turning over the task of debunking falsehoods to ordinary users under a model known as \u201cCommunity Notes,\u201d popularized by X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers have repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of \u201cCommunity Notes\u201d in combating falsehoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human fact-checking has long been a flashpoint in a hyperpolarized political climate, particularly in the United States, where conservative advocates maintain it suppresses free speech and censors right-wing content \u2014 something professional fact-checkers vehemently reject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook\u2019s fact-checking program, including in Asia, Latin America, and the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The quality and accuracy of AI chatbots can vary, depending on how they are trained and programmed, prompting concerns that their output may be subject to political influence or control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk\u2019s xAI recently blamed an \u201cunauthorized modification\u201d for causing Grok to generate unsolicited posts referencing \u201cwhite genocide\u201d in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When AI expert David Caswell asked Grok who might have modified its system prompt, the chatbot named Musk as the \u201cmost likely\u201d culprit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk, the South African-born billionaire backer of President Donald Trump, has previously peddled the unfounded claim that South Africa\u2019s leaders were \u201copenly pushing for genocide\u201d of white people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As misinformation exploded during India\u2019s four-day conflict with Pakistan, social media users turned to an AI chatbot for verification \u2014 only to encounter more falsehoods, underscoring its unreliability as a fact-checking tool. With tech platforms reducing human fact-checkers, users are increasingly relying on AI-powered chatbots \u2014 including xAI\u2019s Grok, OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, and Google\u2019s Gemini \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6200,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions\/6200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}