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Deniers Use Cutting-Edge AI Tech To Be Stupid [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-26  

This year we've watched as all the hype around artificial intelligence has both inspired deniers and also made them mad, like when a chatbot debunked them . While real scientists are doing cool things with AI and the president is poised to do something to regulate it, deniers continue to use this advanced technology to be stupid in amazing new ways.

Tom Nelson, poster-turned-podcaster, recently tweeted the results he got after twisting ChatGPT-4's arm to create climate disinfo by asking it, "what are some of the most compelling arguments made by climate skeptics?" After correctly noting "that the overwhelming majority of the scientific community supports the consensus that humans are significantly influencing the climate through the emission of greenhouse gasses," the bot then rattled off ten common denier talking points.

From "Natural Climate Variability" to "Solar Radiation" and "Economic and Political Motives," the chatbot did as instructed and described ten common climate denial narratives , before again offering the reminder that "it's crucial when considering these points to understand that many have been extensively reviewed, critiqued, and often refuted or clarified by climate scientists.” The bot continued, “The consensus remains that anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is a real and pressing issue."

And if you're concerned about AI's potential to mimic real deniers and spread disinfo across the internet, don't worry! Just check out the 100+ replies to Tom's post featuring actual real human people jumping on the Twitter climate denial bandwagon and saying all sorts of stupid things. No bots are needed, thanks to decades of disinfo, to spread climate denial across the internet in text! Yes, bots can be stupid faster than humans, but we have much more experience.

Images, though, are slightly harder for AI, and people, to create than text. Photoshop's been around for a while, but the price and technical skills required to fake images and videos have proven too great for widespread use. Unfortunately, all that is changing thanks to the accessibility of AI-generated visual content.

For example, a prankster created a deepfake interview of Greta Thunberg in which she appears to talk about "vegan grenades" and "biodegradable missiles," which isn’t exactly a believable attempt at creating climate disinformation but is an ominous warning of what people with more nefarious aims might do with that sort of technology.

Fortunately, for now, AI-generated images seem to most often be used for illustration, no different than any other commissioned artwork or photograph. One recent, and poignant, example comes from fisherman turned fishing industry lobbyist Jerry Leeman 's group, the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association. They posted an AI-generated image of a crying whale with noise canceling earmuffs posing in front of wind turbines. We’ll give them points for creativity! (And then deduct them for not just paying an artist to create such an image, instead of having a machine steal , amalgamate and then regurgitate human artists' works.)

Creating custom imagery is not necessarily a new capability, given that artists have been doing commissions for hundreds of years, but the effortlessness and affordability of AI-generated images has given disinfluencers an easy way to provide a visceral visual punch to narratives that are totally detached from any objective reality.

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