Gen AI doesn’t cause misinformation—even if it increases the supply, it won’t increase demand for misinformation
Simon et al. 23 (Felix M. Simon, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK. Sacha Altay, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Hugo Mercier, Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, PSL University, CNRS, France. “Misinformation reloaded? Fears about the impact of generative AI on misinformation are overblown” 10/18/2023. https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/misinformation-reloaded-fears-about-the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-misinformation-are-overblown/)
In absolute terms, misinformation already abounds online and, unlike high-quality news or scientific articles, it is rarely behind paywalls. Yet, despite the quantity and accessibility of misinformation, the average internet user consumes very little of it (e.g., Allen et al., 2020; for review, see Acerbi et al., 2022). Instead, misinformation consumption is heavily concentrated in a small portion of very active and vocal users (Grinberg et al. 2019). What makes misinformation consumers special is not that they have privileged access to misinformation but traits that make them more likely to seek out misinformation (Broniatowski et al., 2023; Motta et al., 2023), such as having low trust in institutions or being strong partisans (Osmundsen et al., 2021). Experts on misinformation view partisanship and identity as key determinants of misinformation belief and sharing, while they believe lack of access to reliable information only plays a negligible role (Altay et al., 2023). The problem is not that people do not have access to high-quality information but instead that they reject high-quality information and favor misinformation. Similarly, conspiracy theories exist everywhere and are easily accessible online across the globe. Yet, despite similarities in supply, demand for conspiracy theories varies across countries, such that in more corrupt countries, conspiracy theories are more popular (Alper, 2023; Cordonier & Cafiero, 2023).
Finally, (mis)information, on its own, has no causal effect on the world. (Mis)information only gains causal powers when humans see it. Yet, the number of things that go viral on the internet and get seen is finite because our attention is finite (Jungherr & Schroeder, 2021a; Taylor, 2014). And since generative AI is unlikely to increase demand for misinformation and will not increase the number of things humans can pay attention to, the increase in misinformation supply will likely have limited influence on the diffusion of misinformation.