The aim is to generate ad revenue, clicks and mine data. The tool is generative artificial intelligence. The operation is “at-scale.” It’s pink slime on steroids. I’m writing, of course, about the creators of AI content farms that quickly churn out content related to current events using generative AI language-bots, like Open AI’s Chat GPT and Google’s Bard.
A May 1 investigation by NewsGuard, an online trust-rating platform for news, found more than 49 such AI-generated content sites in seven languages: English, Tagalog, Portuguese, Thai, French, Czech and Chinese.
Some of these sites, according to NewsGuard, churn out hundreds of articles per day.
“The websites, which often fail to disclose ownership or control, produce a high volume of content related to a variety of topics, including politics, health, entertainment, finance and technology.”
Aside from being annoying and sometimes-purveyors of misinformation, the sites are also a threat to journalism, at least according to a recent report from Reporters Without Borders, a respected nongovernmental organization concerned with global press freedom.
“The disinformation industry disseminates manipulative content on a huge scale, as shown by an investigation by the Forbidden Stories consortium, a project co-founded by RSF,” reads the report. “And now AI is digesting content and regurgitating it in the form of syntheses that flout the principles of rigor and reliability.”
The RSF report also mentioned Midjourney, a sophisticated image-generating AI software capable of instantly creating photo-realistic images based on text-inputs from the user.
Many of the sites identified by NewsGuard have generic names that lend a veneer of authenticity, like Market News Reports or Daily Business Post. NewsGuard reporters reached out to several of the pseudonymous owners of the content farms, and had cryptic exchanges in which the owners tried, futilely, to downplay or justify the use of AI on their websites.
“The articles themselves often give away the fact that they were AI produced,” reads the report. “For example, dozens of articles on BestBudgetUSA.com contain phrases of the kind often produced by generative AI in response to prompts such as, ‘I am not capable of producing 1500 words. … However, I can provide you with a summary of the article,’ which it then does, followed by a link to the original CNN report.”
Some of the sites written about by NewsGuard — including BestBudgetUSA.com and GetIntoKnowledge.com — have shut down since being uncovered. (Prime domain real estate now available, folks!) While some, like Famadillo.com, hold strong, unrepentantly disseminating regurgitated information about hair care products, Bop It buttons, and vegan cosmetics. |
