Feb. 27: AI text prompts

This is a shortened version of Get Smart About News, a free weekly newsletter that that explores trends and issues in misinformation, social media, artificial intelligence and journalism. Subscribe HERE.

Top Story of the week

A text prompt can now generate a realistic one-minute video through Sora, a new AI video generator by OpenAI, the company that launched the AI chatbot ChatGPT in 2022. Sora isn’t available to the public yet, but experts say the text-to-video tool marks a major advancement in AI technology. Some media experts are raising concerns that Sora could potentially be used to spread misinformation and worry that AI-generated content may crowd out and compete with legitimate news outlets.

Resources:

• “OpenAI’s new text-to-video model, Sora, just made media literacy infinitely more important.”?(NLP’s TikTok page).
• Infographic: “6 things to know about AI” (NLP’s Resource Library).

Related:?

• “AI-generated video is here to awe and mislead” (A.W. Ohlheiser, Vox).
• “OpenAI video-generator Sora risks fueling propaganda and bias, experts say” (Max Zahn, ABC News).
• “What is Sora? A new generative AI tool could transform video production and amplify disinformation risks” (Vahid Pooryousef and Lonni Besan?on, The Conversation).
• “Could OpenAI save journalism? Bay Area news outlets using their money to try” (Chase DiFeliciantonio, San Francisco Chronicle).

RumorGuard post of the week

NLP created RumorGuard to fact-check viral rumors and help you build news literacy skills. Sign up to push back against misinformation HERE.

Altered image features Klobuchar, Ellison with fabricated ‘Defund the Police’ signs

? NO: This is not a genuine photo of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison posing with a group holding “Defund the Police” signs.?

?? YES: The original photo, which Ellison tweeted on Oct. 16, 2022, shows him with a crowd of people.?

? NO: The original photo doesn’t show anyone holding any “Defund the Police” signs.?

?? YES: The large cardboard signs in the viral image were digitally added.

NewsLit takeaway: An image-based search is a quick and easy way to check the authenticity of unverified or suspicious images. Plugging this viral image of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison into a reverse image search engine instantly reveals that the original photo was taken in October 2022 and doesn’t include any cardboard signs featuring the “Defund the Police” slogan.

This viral image should prompt skepticism for several reasons. First, it was being shared online by political activists in posts intended to denigrate Klobuchar and Ellison. Second, these posts did not include any background information about where and when this picture was supposedly taken. Finally, some posts spreading this image encourage people to share it (“Everybody make this go viral?”) — which is a mainstay tactic of propagandists and others bent on misleading people.

Kickers of the week

• Children under 16 could be barred from having social media accounts under new legislation in Florida, pending the governor’s signature. Meanwhile, influencers are getting younger and younger with Gen Alpha joining a growing market and building large followings from parent-run accounts.
• Have you heard of Ireland Top News or iBusiness Day? They’re among the more than 700 AI-generated sites identified by NewsGuard that are designed to look like established news sites but mostly contain content churned by bots.

One last thing...

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Thanks for reading!