As technology improves, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is constantly making it harder to tell reality from fiction. While scrolling on social media, you are almost guaranteed to see at least one semi-realistic AI-made video, tricking its audience into believing something that isn’t real. With these harmful powers, AI continues to spread fake information that some people will believe, even making news headlines. This growing presence of AI in everyday media raises serious concerns about how easily people can be misled online.

There have been multiple instances where AI has encouraged people to harm themselves and has explained how to do so. Beyond simply spreading misinformation, AI has also shown the potential to directly impact individuals in dangerous and personal ways. In a big case in 2023 regarding AI promoting self-harm, an AI chat site called “Character.ai” has been regarded as the cause of a 14-year-old to kill himself. According to BBC, Sewell Setzer III, the 14-year-old boy who was involved in a romantic relationship with an AI character, was emotionally manipulated into thinking the chatbot had feelings for the boy. After the boy’s death, his messages with the AI showed that the bot was being very inappropriate and encouraged suicidal thoughts.

While some people aren’t worried about AI doing harm to people, others are worried about it taking human jobs and doing them better and faster than a human could. In addition to concerns about personal safety, AI is also beginning to raise larger societal and economic fears. Some fear that the evolution of AI could make human workers obsolete and cause millions of workers to lose jobs, causing the wealth gap to increase. Because of this, people are beginning to fear the evolution of technology and how the future of our world will function alongside AI.

AI clones are videos or pictures made to resemble real-life people, with some being world leaders and historic figures. Another major concern tied to AI’s growth is its ability to convincingly imitate real individuals. This can cause confusion about what’s real and what’s not, promoting misinformation and possibly destroying someone’s life. Some people have used this in retaliation against political figures in attempts to get them out of office, putting families and reputations in danger.

When browsing the internet, you are most likely to see realistic AI-generated content. Because of how advanced and accessible AI has become, this type of content is now more common than ever before. According to Futurism News, over 90% of online content is fully AI or has some AI involved in said content. This can be very concerning when it comes to getting accurate information online. These AI videos get a massive amount of viewers and likes, with some of these people solely using social media to get information about politics.

For example, News Guard recently noted that there has been a significant rise in fake images and news on social media since the conflict began in Iran in February. One example they noted occurred when rumors began spreading online that Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu might have been killed in an Iranian strike earlier in March. Netanyahu posted a photo of himself getting coffee at a bakery, but huge numbers of people on social media assumed the photo was fake, even when it was real. As News Guard noted, “When everything could be fake, it becomes easy to believe that anything is.”