The Growing Threat of Misinformation

In?legislation,?books, periodicals,?and online debates,?efforts to stop?the spread of?misinformation?on?social media?have?long targeted a singular culprit—Meta—especially after the company's?announcement?that it will shut down its misinformation analysis tool?in?August,?just three?months before the U.S.?general?election.

But?the spread of misinformation is hardly?limited to Meta.?In fact,?research reveals TikTok?as a dangerous outlet for inaccuracies. This first came to light?in a 2022 report,?which revealed that 20% of search results for videos pertaining to top news stories,?such?as COVID-19 or school shootings, contained misinformation.?

Artificial intelligence has, of course,?played a hand?in enhancing?the degree to which misinformation runs rampant on the platform.?A?Media Matters report this week?detailed a recent?surge of conspiracy theories circulating on TikTok that utilize AI-generated imagery and narration to distribute outlandish claims about the end of the world (vampires!?killer asteroids!) and the U.S. government "preserving" mythical monsters?like King Kong.

If the latest use of A.I. to strengthen the legitimacy of conspiracies is any indication–lest we forget the aftermath of?users’ poor attempts to solve the real-life Idaho murders?on the app–it is clear TikTok has enabled users to not only sharing misinformation but also generate their own and publish it as truth. Even ex-employees have been?speaking out against TikTok's inaction?to address this matter out of fear of slowing down the social media app's growing business.

Why it matters: ?In a world where social media?supersedes?the capabilities of tabloids in generating false information, brands should proceed with caution?when interacting with it, especially on an app such as TikTok. While it is important to engage with consumers and meet them where they are online, it is of equal priority to ensure that any trends or cultural moments on the app are carefully reviewed prior to participation?to ensure that brands themselves do not become targets of misinformation or be accused of false advertising.

Other news and trends

• Grok-1.?Last weekend, Elon?Musk's A.I. firm,?xAI?,released?Grok-1, an open-source large language model that directly competes with OpenAI, of which Musk has been openly critical and?even sued?under the pretense that the company was prioritizing profits over open A.I. model releases. Musk's firm shared the base model weights and network architecture of Grok-1, which is now available to Premium+ subscribers on X, and the weights can be obtained through a?Torrent link?on GitHub, where the inference code is also?available to download. According to A.I. researcher Simon Willison, Grok-1 is not yet an instruction-tuned model, which means it requires substantial effort before it can operate on a conversational basis like ChatGPT, though it is one of the largest open-weights models released so far.
• Apple and Google unite on A.I.?Bloomberg reports?that Apple is engaging in preliminary talks with Google to bring generative A.I. to iPhones, as Apple races to embrace the technology and incorporate it into its products. The possibility of this partnership would extend the long relationship between the two companies, stemming from delivering?better navigation?and?search engine features?to iPhone. This effort would be yet another instance of Google filling in the missing pieces of Apple's line of devices as Apple itself shifts goals to prioritize?developing its own A.I. model.

• Trending on TikTok: Jennifer Lopez.?Last month, Jennifer Lopez?released?a fantastical, musical, surreal biopic titled?This is Me...Now: A Love Story. Dubbed a?messy green-screen fantasia, the internet absolutely had some thoughts on the matter, and opinions reached new?heights?when Lopez released a?documentary?weeks later,?The Greatest Love Story Never Told, highlighting the process of making the film.?Rumors?have long circulated about Lopez being?one of the more out-of-touch celebrities, and users on TikTok are?calling out her attempt to be relatable?in a less-than-relatable film/documentary series.?One clip?that reached viral status is of Lopez untying her hair while claiming it reminds her of her teen years "running up and down the block."

• Trending on X: Don Lemon vs. Elon Musk.?In a post on X,?Don Lemon announces?that his show on the app, The Don Lemon Show, was canceled. He also claims that the reason why was because of a tense interview he conducted with Elon Musk. Naturally, Lemon proceeds?to upload said interview?on YouTube for everyone to watch and decide for themselves. The conversation is certainly curt, covering issues such as Musk's comments on immigration?as well as the?rising antisemitism?on X, with Musk visibly growing increasingly irritated at the halfway mark of the interview until the very end. Musk?later confirmed?the cancellation of the show, claiming it was "too similar" to CNN.

Contributors: Head of Social Content and Engagement Strategy Cristina Lawrence, Senior Vice President Jerry Lawrence, Group Vice President Andrew McKernan, and Senior Vice President Tammy Pepito. At Razorfish, we help brands define their higher purpose—the emotional reason why they belong in people’s lives. Ready to find your purpose? Learn more here.