AI's election (mis)information

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PERPLEXITY PROMOTES AI ELECTION HUB, PLAYS WITH FIRE 🙃

There’s an election today? 🤔

What’s new? AI search company Perplexity has launched an Election Information Hub, testing the use of AI to deliver crucial voting details.

How does it work? The hub offers AI-generated answers to common voting questions, candidate summaries, and live vote tracking on Election Day (today), November 5th, with data sourced from The Associated Press. Perplexity’s voting information is powered by Democracy Works, the same data provider behind Google’s similar features. The company claims its election responses are built from “a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources,” including Ballotpedia and verified news outlets. Spokesperson Sara Plotnick emphasized that Perplexity actively monitors its systems to prioritize non-partisan, fact-checked sources.

What are the problems? Users have already (and unsurprisingly) reported inaccuracies, such as outdated candidate statuses and biases in reporting crucial information. These challenges underscore the difficulties of relying on generative AI for high-stakes information in a field many tech companies avoid due to potential inaccuracies. Many are highly critical of Perplexity for “testing” this out on such an important day, where voters may be misled by the AI outputs.

PARENTS TRUST AI MORE THAN HUMAN DOCTORS 🩺

Doctor: “I’ve got very bad news—you’ve got cancer and Alzheimer’s.”

Patient: “Well, at least I don’t have cancer.” 🤷‍♂️

What’s new? A recent study by the University of Kansas Life Span Institute highlights a growing trend: parents are trusting AI more than doctors for their children’s health advice.

What was the study? Over 100 parents aged 18 to 65 were asked to evaluate health advice written by either ChatGPT or a human doctor. The study, published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, found that parents rated the AI-generated information as more “credible, moral, and trustworthy.”

Why should you care? AI’s uses in healthcare continue to expand, and convenience is a large factor for adoption. It’s very difficult for many parents to schedule an appointment amidst busy schedules to get medical advice for their children. AI proves to be a convenient alternative in this regard. However, many remain concerned about AI’s ability to fabricate sensitive information and advice as well as its inability to provide a unique “human touch.”

AI FABRICATES HALLOWEEN PARADE 🎃

Q: What kind of instrument does a skeleton play?

A: Trom-bone. 💀

What happened? Last week, thousands of Dubliners lined the streets for a Halloween parade that never existed. The event, which had promised appearances by stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and YouTuber Mr. Beast, was based on an AI-generated article from MySpiritHalloween.com.

How did this happen? The website responsible, owned by entrepreneur Nazir Ali, reportedly uses AI to supplement its content, although Ali claims human editors are heavily involved. According to him, the error was due to an oversight by a content writer. The fake parade listing, allegedly missed during review, emphasizes growing concerns about “AI slop”: low-quality content churned out to exploit search algorithms.

Why should you care? Many people see this mistake as part of a larger issue of misinformation. The incident serves as a stark reminder to verify sources and exercise caution when planning based on online information.

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