Poynter’s PolitiFact is thinking about the AI craze, and what it means for misinformation Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. From the Institute: An occasional update from Poynter’s thought leaders Dear ,   I’m sure you’ve probably seen the stories about ChatGPT and GPT-4, and how AI is either here to save us or destroy us. At PolitiFact, we’re taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach before leaning one way or the other.   Our thinking ahead of the 2024 presidential election is entirely a different matter.   My colleague, managing editor Katie Sanders, was just quoted in a piece in Vanity Fair that I wanted our loyal audience to take note of. The shorthand: A lot of the AI-generated misinformation we’re seeing (particularly through video) remains fairly easy to debunk. But the technology is getting better every day.   It has given us enough pause that we’ve asked a fact-checker to spend the next few months focusing solely on AI-generated videos, which you might call deep fakes. "Deep fakes" use complex technology to swap someone’s face, clone their voice or synchronize their lips to a different audio track.   But as we monitor those videos, it’s also important to remember that not every piece of misinformation requires some advanced computing degree.   Combining false information with kernels of truth has been a powerful form of propaganda for decades. And that practice has only expanded in the digital age.   A “cheap fake” is a video with basic edits to slow it down, speed it up, cut it into snippets, insert or remove details, or present it in a false context.   Cheap fakes are just as dangerous to our online information ecosystem.   Social media users saw slowed down footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leaving viewers with the false impression that she was drunkenly slurring her words.   In another example, Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield aired a shortened clip that mischaracterized a speech by President Joe Biden. In that speech, Biden’s accurate quote was, "if we cannot make significant progress on racial equity, this country is doomed." The Newsmax clip was presented out of context and edited in such a way that it appeared Biden was saying the U.S. is "doomed" because of Black people.   And a video shared by conservative websites like Townhall cut Biden off mid-sentence to make it look like he said high gas prices were a matter of Americans "paying their fair share." In context, Biden was talking about lowering prices. The shortened video cut out what he said next — that "paying their fair share" meant "not being gouged for gas."   We’ll be on the lookout for those videos, too, and sharing those fact-checks with you.   At PolitiFact, we don’t want everyone to fall into the camp of “I don’t know what to believe,” or “I can’t believe anything anymore,” because that does little to improve the flow of information online. Instead, when you see a video, ask yourself just a couple of quick questions: 1. Is this a short clip, or does it seem like something might be missing? If the answer is yes, it might be a sign something isn’t quite right. 2. If I did a quick Internet search on the contents of the video, would I see a wide variety of media talking about it in the same context? If the answer is no, it might be a sign something isn’t quite right. Those two questions will get you a long way toward being your own fact-checker. But if you think we can help, don’t hesitate to email me. PolitiFact is owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies. You can read more about PolitiFact here. Aaron Sharockman Executive Director, PolitiFact Vice President for Sales & Strategic Partnerships   ADVERTISE // DONATE // LEARN // JOBS Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here. © All rights reserved Poynter Institute 2023 801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 If you don't want to receive email updates from Poynter, we understand. You can change your subscription preferences or unsubscribe from all Poynter emails.