An image of Jesus made out of bananas, eggs or plastic bottles, even a shrimp version of Jesus — AI-generated content is thriving on social media, in particular Facebook. Often the engagement stats reach into the millions.
The crazier, the better, it seems. Social media algorithms are a gold mine for users trying to spread AI content online.
But how innocent are these silly images? Research by the Stanford Internet Observatory shows that Facebook pages with AI-generated content are often created by cyber criminals.
AI-Generated Content Not Without Risk
According to Renée DiResta, one of the researchers involved with the Stanford Internet Observatory, AI-generated images create safety risks for social media users. Bizarre images may be used to guide unsuspecting people to fraudulent pages and websites.
Through the spreading of malware and various phishing techniques, people are at risk of losing their private data to hackers. Pages that feature AI content often show quick growth — a sign that fake accounts and clickfarms are also involved.
AI imagery is also used to sell products that don’t exist or lure people away from legitimate social media sites to external clones.
Since artificial intelligence allows for a huge amount of content to be created with a few clicks, it’s a low-effort way for cyber criminals to target people online.
Growing Concern about AI on Social Media
Concerns about the influence of artificially-generated content on social media is growing. Especially in political times, AI has the power to shape elections, as is the case for the 2024 general elections in India and the United States.
For instance, AI makes it possible to generate deepfakes of political opposition leaders. This makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish fake news from factual information.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has already expressed the intent to start labeling AI content on its platforms. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it remains to be seen how effective this method will prove to be. Facebook is not known for its accurate detection systems.
It’s likely that some content will be incorrectly flagged while actual AI content will slip through the cracks. An image of Jesus as a shrimp is recognizably fake, but experts worry that we might not always be able to identify AI-generated content.
