The pope in a puffer coat. Donald Trump tackled to the ground by policemen. Joe Biden with a corn-coloured mullet.

How many of these images did you see and believe? The rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies this year has allowed fake news stories to flourishGrow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way.. All it takes is an idea, and anyone can make it into a reality.

More than 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformationArtificial intelligence is already used to produce "deep fakes", visual and audio content that impersonates someone in order to deceive and spread false information., with 87% concerned that it has already harmed their country's politics.¹

These concerns are not unfounded: ahead of the 2024 US presidential race, campaigns have already circulated myriadA countless or extremely great number of people or things. fake images and audio targeting candidates, including deepfake news footage and an AI-generated campaign ad portraying a future dystopianRelating to an imagined society where there is great suffering or injustice.  reality if Biden is re-elected.²

What were the biggest fake news stories of this year? In January, a flurry of activists rushed to social media to claim that America will ban all gas stoves in an attempt to reduce emissions, sparking widespread controversy.

In February, images and videos shared online appeared to show a nuclear plant exploding due to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The false news was viewed by millions of people before being debunkedDisproved..

In June, a submersible bound for a tour of the Titanic went missing in the North Atlantic, containing five people. A deepfake CNN article went viral claiming that the submersible had been found with its passengers mysteriously missing.

In September, party-goers in the Nevada Desert attending the annual Burning Man festival were stranded by flooding. Social media users claimed all manner of outlandishLooking or sounding bizarre or unfamiliar. things, including that attendees had contracted the Ebola virus.

In October, French intelligence alleged that the bedbug panic sweeping Paris had been stoked by KremlinA central fortress in a city, used to refer to a complex in Moscow with five palaces and four cathedrals. The Russian government is run from within this citadel. propagandistsA person who disseminates propaganda. seeking to destabilise the western world.³

And this month, social media users spread the claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had marked two years of the war in Ukraine by splashing out on two multimillion-dollar luxury yachts. The claim was promptly disproved.⁴

Some worry that the quality of fake news is only getting higher, whilst our media literacyThe ability to apply critical thinking skills to mass media. is declining. With several vital global elections due to take place next year, some say we need to build a handbook for determining what is real.

Yes: There is lots of fake news, but it is almost always quickly debunked. Right now, it is still possible to tell the difference between AI-generated fake news and real stories, provided you have a degree of media literacy.

No: It is becoming easier to generate believable fake news for free. It can come from anywhere and be distributed widely on social media within minutes. Soon it will be impossible for us to keep up with what is real and what is fake.

Or... It is not truth we need to protect, but imagination. With imagination, we can imagine new possibilities for our lives; fake news is designed to trap us in narrow-minded and prejudiced perspectives.