News coverage from August 2023 about the Center for an Informed Public and CIP-affiliated research and researchers.
- Wired (August 1): “This disinformation is just for you”
CIP co-founder Kate Starbird was interviewed for a story in Wired that explored the possibility of using generative AI tools to create customized content as part of a disinformation campaign. “Generative AI lowers the financial barrier for creating content that’s tailored to certain audiences,” Starbird, an associate professor in the UW Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. “You can tailor it to audiences and make sure the narrative hits on the values and beliefs of those audiences, as well as the strategic part of the narrative.”
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- Vox (August 2): “Why TikTokers are drinking laundry detergent”
CIP research scientist Rachel Moran-Prestridge was interviewed for a Vox article about the viral and dangerous “Borax challenge” on TikTok, noting the difficulty in tracking the impact of such trends,“[e]specially when the trend involves ingesting a substance that is typically thought of as toxic, it’s unclear how many people who show interest online will actually perform the behavior offline,” she said. “People may be more inclined to try drinking borax if they can post about it online and go viral, but similarly the everyday non-posting user watching the video may see it as a trend fit only for (wannabe) influencers.”
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- CNN Business (August 29): “AI tools make things up a lot, and that’s a huge problem”
CIP co-founder Jevin West, an iSchool associate professor, was interviewed for a story about when an AI chatbot “hallucinates,” it does so “with pure confidence” and it “does it with the same confidence that it would if you asked a very simple question like, ‘What’s the capital of the United States?’”
