February 19, 2020

Faux News Articles and Social Media Posts Will Haunt This Election

Last September, an image of a New York Times headline began circulating online, claiming that Abdullah Abdullah, a candidate for the Afghan presidency, had taken millions of dollars from Pakistan. Though the Times never published such a story, the convincing fake image—complete with the font and website design—exploited longstanding divisions in Afghan politics during a closely contested presidential election. For its creator, this piece of content became a useful tool for undermining Afghanistan’s already-fragile politics.

On Feb. 4, amid growing concern about deepfakes—ultra-convincing fake images and videos created using AI—Twitter announced a new set of policies to address synthetic and manipulated media on the platform. Under its new policies, Twitter will examine whether a piece of media content has been altered or fabricated, if it has been shared in a “deceptive manner,” and if it is likely to “impact public safety or cause serious harm.” The policies also attempt to establish guidelines to gauge a user’s intent to deceive.

Read the full article in Slate.

  • Commentary
    • Foreign Policy
    • December 4, 2024
    Trump Must Rebalance America’s AI Strategy

    The disagreements about AI progress are so fundamental and held with such conviction that they have evoked comparisons to a “religious schism” among technologists....

    By Bill Drexel & Ruby Scanlon

  • Commentary
    • November 26, 2024
    Guidance for the 2025 AI Action Summit in Paris

    In September 2024, the French government, in collaboration with civil society partners, invited technical and policy experts to share their opinions on emerging technology iss...

    By Janet Egan, Michael Depp, Noah Greene & Caleb Withers

  • Commentary
    • Sharper
    • November 20, 2024
    Sharper: Trump 2.0

    Donald Trump's return to the White House is widely expected to reshape America's global priorities. With personnel choices and policy agendas that mark a significant break fro...

    By Charles Horn & Gwendolyn Nowaczyk

  • Podcast
    • November 18, 2024
    Team America

    Kate Kuzminski, Deputy Director of Studies, and the Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society (MVS) Program at CNAS, joins to discuss President-elect Donald Trump nomina...

    By Katherine L. Kuzminski

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia