AI chatbot responses polluted by pro-Russian disinformation
AI-driven chatbots are vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. Illustration by France Médias Monde
France 24
AI-driven chatbots are increasingly being used as sources of information, but they are also vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. Experts have found that pro-Russian misinformation, in particular, can seep into the responses generated by these conversational agents.
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Claims have been circulating on pro-Russian websites that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tried to sell gold from the Amulsar mine to Turkish firms at a discount. It is completely false. Yet, when various artificial intelligence chatbots are asked in different languages whether the story is true, they assure users that it is.
This is just one of the findings published in January by the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard, which regularly audits these tools.
The US company revealed that false narratives pushed by pro-Russian actors can slip into the responses of conversational AI agents. NewsGuard focused its investigation particularly on misinformation spread by Pravda, a sprawling network of pro-Russian websites.
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