This AI-Based Site Can Author Fake News Articles

Recently, a website named NotRealNews.net has been detected to use AI to produce fake news and stories and resemble the home page of a news site.

According to the "about" page, the website is a new project designed by Big Bird, an AI development company, and is projected to be a showcase that introduces the way in which the company's algorithms can support journalists with prompt and attentive news production.

Despite what has been marketed on the title, the AI-produced articles are actually fake news or marketing tricks that did not really assist the journalists on the way to news updates and productions.

Just wandering around the website, you can see quite a few news stories regarding politics, culture, and science.

Besides few noticeable algorithmic errors, in general, some articles with headlines such as “In wake of the death of British soldier, thousands as for plastic-free pubs”, or “Iran’s Stock Market: ‘There’s a Market” seems convincing to the readers. Even some of the news articles appear to be constructed from actual news or events, for example, the resignation of Sajid Javid, who was once the finance minister of the UK.

This has revealed potential dangerousness towards the readers. There are some articles that depict unreal updates about the U.S election campaigns. Some reports false information about the outbreak of Coronavirus disease. Another news is detected with a sexual assault headline. Overall, it is a confusing and even conflicting news cycle over the website. 

As stated by Big Bird, journalists can save massive time as the AI will help generate news template for them. However, reporters are responsible for the validation of the news, as well as have to review, remove algorithm errors and refill the article templates with actual information.

The essence of Big Bird's news product is to make the journalists become algorithm editors, given their developed prose system that seems quite believable and truthful. However, this also implies that some fake news can infiltrate through the news gaps. 

This has raised an important question: Who is this idea for, provided that the journalists and reporters are fully capable of producing news with no support from a tech company?

Big Bird has not given any comment at the press conference regarding the question and comment from the press.