Odion Okpeta, head of operations at Pulse NG, said some individuals were exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) to alter facts and that it was the role of the media’s job to debunk false news with the truth.
Mr Okpeta made the statement at Technovate Fest 2024, a gathering of tech enthusiasts which was held in Lagos last Thursday.
The senior staff of Pulse NG said the media was complicit in misinformation in that some blogs deliberately published distorted news as clickbaits in order to increase website traffic and generate more revenue.
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Those blogs had no ethics to spread the truth; they were merely money-making ventures, Mr Okpata said.
The spread of misinformation through the use of AI
Mr Okpeta accused some blogs and websites of misrepresenting facts to influence its readers, stating that they were only interested in presenting the version of the story that would bring in the most money, not the whole “truth,” even if it meant manipulating images and videos to suit their narrative.
He explained that AI had simplified the process of manipulating an original story.
“To make matters worse, we now have AI tools that can easily help them achieve that with less effort. We have seen AI tools where you can give prompts to change the actual event in an image, and you can hardly tell the difference between the original and the manipulated,” Mr Okpeta said on Thursday.
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“Like some people say, it is not the media’s job to tell you the ‘truth’; it’s their job to make money like everyone else to be sustainable. It is the consumer’s job to find the truth,” he added.
AI, according to Mr Okpeta, has made it difficult for content consumers to find the truth.
He advised media organisations to regularly conduct fact-checks on false news rather than call out the fake news peddlers.
“You should debunk any misinformation and not share it, and the world we live in will be a better place,” he stressed.