How AI-Powered Bots could Flood Social Media with Fake Accounts

ChatGPT is an AI-based chatbot developed by OpenAI that has become the first experience with artificial intelligence for many individuals seeking advice on cooking, writing, and other topics. The system’s sophisticated language processing technology has been trained using text databases from the internet, such as books, magazines, and Wikipedia entries, with approximately 300 billion words fed into it. This has resulted in a chatbot that can provide an encyclopedic level of knowledge with convincing human-like responses.

However, experts warn that ChatGPT’s capabilities could also be exploited by bad actors to spread propaganda and sow dissent on social media. The report from Georgetown University, Stanford Internet Observatory, and OpenAI published in January warns that AI like ChatGPT could be used to scale up so-called troll armies to spread misinformation on social media. These campaigns can advocate for or against policies, cast politicians or ruling government parties in a positive or negative light, and deflect criticism.

In the past, spreading misinformation on social media required considerable human labor, but sophisticated language processing systems like ChatGPT could significantly impact influence operations on social media, making it easier for propagandists to tailor their messaging and make it difficult for ordinary internet users to recognize coordinated disinformation campaigns.

Overall, while ChatGPT has proved to be a useful tool for many seeking information and advice, it is important to consider the potential misuse of such AI systems and the impact they could have on the spread of misinformation and propaganda on social media.