‘It feels dystopian:’ AI-generated content about election flooded online news void

A group that tracks elections-related social media activity says a tsunami of content created by artificial intelligence filled Canada’s online news void, making this federal election campaign the most “dystopian” the country has ever seen.

But Aengus Bridgman from the Ontario-based Media Ecosystem Observatory says the good news is that a large amount of sophisticated and false online content has seemingly had a low impact on Canadian electors so far.

“We don’t have any evidence yet that Canadians are being manipulated or were convinced of things that are not true,” said Bridgman, also a professor at McGill University.

“This is absolutely a concern, and could occur, but it hasn’t yet. There’s just tons of generative AI content that we’ve seen.”

Bridgman said the AI-generated content did little to change opinions because electors are smarter than they are given credit for.

“Canadians are much more aware of and concerned about, for example, foreign interference, the role of deepfakes and manipulated content online than previously,” he said.

AI-generated content included memes and deepfake videos of politicians talking, Bridgman said.

The observatory also saw an increase in AI-generated content that impersonated legitimate news sources to promote fraudulent investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.

AI also repurposed a former buy and sell page on Facebook for a political group advocating for 51st statehood, Brigman said.

“News is not available on that platform, but AI was pretending to be news,” he said.

He said researchers also found more Canadians clicked and surfed websites of legitimate Canadian news organizations for election information this year than in previous elections.

The news void was created by the Online News Act, which became law on June 22, 2023. It requires tech giants like Meta and Google to compensate journalism outlets for sharing their content.

In August 2023, Meta described the legislation, Bill C-18, as “unworkable” and ended news availability for Canadians on its platforms.

Bridgman said it means on April 28, Canadians will have to vote in a federal election after facing an unprecedented online election news void.

He said the content that rampantly replaced the void was not properly moderated by Meta.

“It feels ‘Black Mirror’-esque, it feels dystopian,” Bridgman said, referencing the popular Netflix anthology show “Black Mirror,” in which every episode presents a terrifying prediction of how technology could shape the future.