Reports on research suggesting AI-altered images and generated misinformation can distort people's memories and increase confidence in false recollections. Discusses the implications for human oversight of AI systems and the limits of current countermeasures.
Science study in which 2,190 conspiracy believers held personalized, evidence-based conversations with GPT-4 Turbo; belief fell about 20% and the effect lasted two months. Science published an expression of concern about the paper on June 11, 2026.
Preregistered experiment (N = 955) in PNAS Nexus testing whether LLM debunking works because the messenger is an AI. Conversations reduced confidence in conspiracy and other unwarranted beliefs whether the model was framed as an AI tool or a human expert.
A research lab at Toronto Metropolitan University studying how social media and AI are changing the ways people communicate, work and organize. The lab builds free research apps, publishes studies on misinformation and online communities, and was sanctioned by Russia in 2026 for tracking war misinformation.
A free US government hub (IMLS) with guides and toolkits for finding, understanding, evaluating and sharing information — built for libraries, classrooms and home use.
Why I recommend it: Solid, non-commercial material for spotting misinformation and AI-generated content; aimed at librarians but usable by anyone.
Science's news report by Kai Kupferschmidt on Kobi Hackenburg's research into how large language models persuade people. The finding that matters: chatbots change minds mainly by flooding a conversation with facts, figures and evidence at a speed no human debater can match — not by charm or by tailoring the argument to who you are. Researchers quoted include Gordon Pennycook ("Facts and evidence really matter") and Sander van der Linden, who calls AI persuasion "a whole new field that is emerging". The uncomfortable part: in an earlier Science paper, Hackenburg found models trained to be more persuasive also became less truthful, so some of the evidence being thrown at you can be wrong or invented.
Why I recommend it: Read this before your next long back-and-forth with a chatbot about a decision. The practical takeaway is a habit: when an AI answer wins you over because it listed ten supporting facts, check two of them at random before you act on it — persuasiveness and accuracy are trained separately, and the research says pushing one down can push the other. Two honest notes: this is Science's news section reporting a study, so read the paper itself before quoting a figure in writing, and Science blocks automated access, so I could not load the page myself to confirm it is still open to read — the news section is normally free, but if it asks you to sign in, tell me and I will pull the entry.