This is the third installment in the series exploring the impacts of AI-generative text on the Pagan community, and beyond.
TWH – News last week about the use of AI-generated text and images hit a whole new level after it was reported that Sports Illustrated not only published several articles using AI-generated text but that the writers of the articles were allegedly created by using AI-generated headshots with completely fictitious bios.
Once the magazine was questioned about the writers and the content, the articles and writers disappeared. Sports Illustrated then issued a statement pushing back on the claim, saying the work in question was done by a third-party contractor and had been under investigation when the story by Futurism was published.
Setting aside the ethics of offering articles by made-up, nonexistent writers and presenting them as being factual and written by actual journalists, the larger question is how can anything being published be trusted? And how can any consumer of digital products, be it news, art, or music, know if it is the work of an actual human?
Ivo Dominguez told TWH, “We’re still at the beginning of this, and all of it is getting better, more sophisticated, and has been improving as we have been watching. The day will come when there is a way to detect a deep fake or AI, like a virus scan. If we don’t develop it, we will be screwed.”
He also noted that the probability of that type of tech being produced any time soon might not be very likely. As for advice on how to proceed, “In the meantime, how do you tell—don’t buy a book unless you have done the research to make sure they are written by an actual person.”
Dominguez was definitely on to something, as Meta, the parent company of Facebook announced at the beginning of November that it would be barring political campaigns and advertisers in other regulated industries from using its new generative AI advertising products as reported by Reuters.
“As we continue to test new Generative AI ads creation tools in Ads Manager, advertisers running campaigns that qualify as ads for Housing, Employment or Credit or Social Issues, Elections, or Politics, or related to Health, Pharmaceuticals or Financial Services aren’t currently permitted to use these Generative AI features.”
“We believe this approach will allow us to better understand potential risks and build the right safeguards for the use of Generative AI in ads that relate to potentially sensitive topics in regulated industries.”
This announcement coming just a month after Meta stated it would begin offering expanded AI-powered tools for advertisers that would allow them to “instantly create backgrounds, image adjustments and variations of ad copy in response to simple text prompts.”
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While the company has yet to say exactly what kind of protections and safeguards it plans to implement to police AI-generated material, the announcement was important and the first in the industry. Other platforms will likely follow suit.
The potential impact of misinformation and even disinformation created by AI-generative applications, like deep fakes, is a major concern for journalists, reporters, and news agencies, too. CBS News announced early last month that it would be creating a new fact-checking unit called “CBS News Confirmed” to detect false information. The network said the segments produced will explain to viewers how any false information it examines was detected, and then determined to be fake.
According to reporting by The Wrap, “The unit will be led by senior vice president for CBS News and Stations Claudia Milne, and executive vice president and head of news operations and transformation for CBS News and Stations Ross Dagan,” and that, “The network intends to hire forensic journalists, further training of existing employees, and invest in new technology to improve fact-checking capabilities.”
The CEO of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, sent a memo to staff members that stated, “Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace. And the challenges created by the rise of generative AI, fake videos, and misinformation are too great for us not to meet head-on.”
Credit: MJTM
While this is certainly encouraging news, the scope of the problem is likely to be vast when considering that according to OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman who told CNN in November that the platform has two million developers using it, 100 million active users, and roughly 90% of Fortune 500 companies are using the tools internally. And that was before the proposed rollout of the company’s new GPT Store which was slated for late November but has since been pushed back until 2024.
All of this still comes back to the question of how AI-generated material can be detected. So far, few tools exist or are readily accessible. Those that are, like CopyLeaks, aren’t always accurate in their detection. Similar resources are already popping up are several sites claiming to make AI-generated text undetectable.
The impacts of AI-generated works are likely to be quite broad and an ongoing challenge for the foreseeable future.
Dominguez points out, “When we look at our community, and which is true for other communities, one of the things that has always been special about them is access to the authors.”
Conferences and public events that feature chat panels with various artists and authors, whether it is a Pagan-specific event or some other field, are generally very popular with attendees. Dominguez notes, “This is one more thing that is cold and heartless about AI-generated works, there is no way to question the work or ask for clarification.”
He made clear one of his concerns, “My fear is that it will become acceptable to rely on AI-generated works or even prefer them over the written works of actual practitioners based on real life and ritual experience.”
Until we have better tools for detecting AI-generated work, noting which authors maintain active social media presences, attend conferences and other public events, and are interactive with their readers and followers is liable to be the best bet.
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