Enjoying the show? Support our mission and help keep the content coming by buying us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/deepdivepodcastArtificial intelligence is silently shaping the news you see every single day, presenting a massive tension between incredible opportunity and serious risk. Is this technology the thing that saves the struggling journalism industry, or is it actually a force that could destroy public trust and even the idea of factual reporting as we know it?

On one side, AI promises to make the process of delivering news faster, smarter, and more efficient. For major news organizations like The Associated Press, the goal isn't to replace journalists with robots, it's to give them superpowers. AI acts as a powerful sidekick, handling grunt work—like transcribing interviews or suggesting headlines—freeing up human journalists to do what they do best: dig deep and find the real story. This is about using technology to give journalists super tools to get the facts out there in a confusing world.

But that super tool has a much sharper edge. Real-world examples show these systems going completely off the rails. A devastating case involves filmmaker Robbie Starbuck, who was attacked with completely fabricated lies generated by AI chatbots from major tech companies. Meta's AI falsely accused him of being part of the January 6th riot, while Google's AI linked him to sexual assault. These AI-generated falsehoods led to death threats against his family, forcing him to sue. The danger isn't just errors; it's deep fake chaos. In a Virginia political race, one candidate's campaign made an AI version of their opponent and debated the robot on a live stream. Meanwhile, in Sweden, scammers created deep fake videos of trusted doctors to sell fake medical products, stealing faces and reputations to trick sick people out of their money.

Where does this leave public trust? The picture is complicated, as we want it both ways: we think AI will make news cheaper and faster, but in the very next breath, we're sure it'll be less trustworthy. It's a total contradiction. A massive generation gap is also opening up: 15% of people under 25 are already turning to AI chatbots for news. This trend is escalating global anxiety, where almost 60% of people are already worried they can’t tell the difference between what's real and what's fake online.

Though the global community fighting for facts saw incredible growth, with fact-checking projects exploding from about 100 to over 450, that growth has recently hit a plateau. Fact-checkers are squeezed by big funders pulling back, political attacks, and the insane speed of AI misinformation. The solution, and your personal safety net, is the "Human in the Loop" concept used by the AP: an AI can help, but a real person always has the final say.

The final, massive question remains: in a world where text, images, and videos can be created out of thin air in seconds, who is ultimately responsible for the truth? Is it the tech companies, the news organizations, or does that responsibility now fall more than ever before on each and every one of us to be smart consumers of information?