Uni Bamberg News

Andreas Jungherr quoted in TIME:

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 08:02:00 +0100

Next year will be the most significant year for elections so far this century, with the U.S., India, the U.K., Mexico, Indonesia, and Taiwan all headed to the polls. Although many are concerned about the impact deepfakes and misinformation could have on elections, many experts stress the evidence for their impacts on elections so far is limited at best. Experts welcome the measures taken by tech companies to defend election integrity but say more fundamental changes to political systems will be required to tackle misinformation. Andreas Jungherr comments on how disinformation has affected previous election campaigns.

Complete article: Tech Companies Are Taking Action on AI Election Misinformation. Will It Matter?

Online Lecture: The impact of artificial intelligence on democracy

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 23:06:36 +0100

The talk will show that the consequences of today’s AI are more specific for democracy than broad speculation about AGI capabilities implies. Focusing on these specific aspects will account for actual threats and opportunities and thus allow for better monitoring of AI’s impact on democracy in an interdisciplinary effort by computer and social scientists.

Media briefing: Research cooperation between Meta and scientists

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 11:25:19 +0200

In the current issue of Science and Nature, four studies were published that examined selected aspects of the possible impact of Facebook and Instagram in the 2020 US presidential election campaign. These studies were carried out in close cooperation between Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) and US scientists selected by Meta. For the Science Media Center Germany, Andreas Jungherr comments on the findings and the risks of corresponding collaborations between industry and science.

All details can be found here

Interview on Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT

Mon, 22 May 2023 07:44:48 +0200

In the current discussion about the potential and risks of artificial intelligence (AI), the danger of disinformation is a recurring topic. In particular, there is the concern that disinformation can be generated more easily in greater quantity and better quality using language models. Other types of AI, such as image generators or software for creating deepfakes, could also play a role in the context of disinformation if increasingly realistic-looking images and videos can be easily created by AI.

But the impact of disinformation depends on many factors, not just the difficulty of creation. For example, the spread of the content or the target group's belief in its accuracy can also play a role. Therefore, the question arises as to the importance of individual factors and the role played by the creation facilitated by AI methods.

Since the topic is still quite new, especially with regard to the role of language models, there is not yet much completed research on the topic. But looking at previous research on the impact and spread of disinformation, researchers can already provide initial predictions and assess the state of the research and debate. Therefore, we asked researchers who conduct research on disinformation for their initial assessments on this topic.

Desinformation: Welche Rolle können Sprachmodelle und KI spielen?