AI Is Changing Social Media, but Can We Still Trust What We See?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has made it easier than ever to create and share content online. From realistic images and videos to posts that appear to come from legitimate news organizations, AI is changing the way people consume information on social media. While these tools can make certain tasks easier, they also raise questions about misinformation, media literacy and how people determine what information they can trust.
To better understand how these changes are affecting journalism, I spoke with Sarah Cavender, a digital product manager and social media manager for Cox Media. In her role, she oversees four media brands: Dayton.com, the Journal News, the Springfield News-Sun and the Dayton Daily News. Together, those brands account for more than 160 social media accounts. She also oversees the organization's social video strategy, working with reporters to make sure videos connected to their stories reach audiences on social media.
Cavender began her journalism career as an intern with the Dayton Daily News in 2017 while attending college. She later worked as a digital specialist before moving into audience engagement and eventually product management. Having worked in several areas of journalism, she has seen how the industry has changed and how social media has become an increasingly important part of distributing news.
When discussing how AI influences the news people see online, she explained that misinformation was already a problem on social media before the widespread use of AI. People could share misleading videos and information without audiences necessarily taking the time to research whether the content was accurate. AI has added another layer to that problem by making it possible to create realistic looking images, videos and other content without much effort.
"Anybody can make a video and claim that they're a journalist. Anybody can make a video and claim that they're an expert," Cavender said.
She explained that understanding the difference between someone creating content and someone practicing journalism is important. Journalists are expected to research information, speak with experts and verify what they are reporting. Those steps are not necessarily happening with the content people encounter on social media.
This connects to the importance of media literacy. Even when people regularly use social media, that does not necessarily mean they know how to evaluate the information they see. Without checking sources, researching claims or looking for additional reporting, it can become difficult to distinguish reliable information from misinformation.
However, Cavender does not believe all uses of AI are necessarily harmful to journalism. She explained that some AI tools can help journalists work through large amounts of information and make certain tasks more efficient. For example, her organization recently used a public records request to obtain data related to Flock cameras. The spreadsheet contained more than 2,000 data points, making it difficult to sort through manually. AI could help narrow down that information and identify specific details more efficiently.
She sees a difference between using AI as a tool to assist journalists and using it to generate the actual content audiences consume. While automation and data organization can be useful, she believes journalists should remain involved in the reporting and content creation process.
"Always going through things with a human is what makes and stands out against these people who are not real journalists and who are not real news organizations," Cavender said.
Another concern is whether AI-generated content can ever truly be unbiased. AI learns from information created by humans, which means it can also reflect the language, perspectives and biases found in that information. We questioned whether AI could completely separate itself from those human influences, particularly as it continues to learn more on how people communicate and interact.
This raises questions about the role AI could play in shaping public perceptions of news. If the information being generated already reflects certain perspectives, audiences may not recognize those influences when they encounter AI-generated content. This is especially concerning on social media, where content can spread quickly and reach people without the context or verification that traditionally accompanies journalism.
When asked whether AI will make people less trusting of the media, Cavender described a negative reaction she often sees when people encounter AI-generated content.
"Anything generated from AI, whether it's a flyer, whether it's a graphic, whether it's a social post or a video, it just automatically kind of gives you an ick," she said.
However, she believes it could become increasingly difficult for people to recognize AI-generated content as the technology improves. This is where she sees journalism continuing to play an important role in helping audiences understand what is real and correcting misleading information.
One of Sarah's biggest concerns is the growing amount of content being produced online. She discussed the dead internet theory, which suggests that bots, automated accounts and artificially generated content are becoming increasingly prominent across online platforms. In her own work, she encounters bots commenting on social media posts, accounts engaging with news organizations and people taking original reporting and using it to create their own content.
As AI makes it easier to produce large amounts of content, audiences may find it harder to determine which accounts and sources are legitimate. This creates another challenge for news organizations trying to reach readers and maintain their credibility.
Cavender even suggested that people could eventually begin turning away from social media and internet platforms in favor of more physical forms of media.
Her perspective highlights an important distinction: AI does not necessarily have to replace journalism to change the way people trust it. Even when news organizations use AI responsibly, the amount of misleading and artificially generated content circulating online can make audiences question what they see.
Ultimately, the responsibility of journalism remains the same: to verify information, provide accurate reporting and give audiences the facts they need to form their own opinions. As AI continues to change social media, media literacy and human involvement in reporting will become even more important.