NewsGuard said it has identified over 900 Unreliable AI-generated news and information websites labeled “UAINS”.
The findings come from NewsGuard‘s AI Tracking Center, which aims to highlight how generative AI is being used to amplify misinformation operations and unreliable news.
The report noted that the AI-generated news websites spanned 16 languages, namely Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Turkish. It added that the news websites use generic names.
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“These websites typically have generic names, such as iBusiness Day, Ireland Top News, and Daily Time Update, which to a consumer appear to be established news sites. This obscures that the sites operate with little to no human oversight and publish articles written largely or entirely by bots — rather than presenting traditionally created and edited journalism, with human oversight.
“The sites have churned out dozens and in some cases hundreds of generic articles, about a range of subjects including politics, technology, entertainment, and travel. The articles have sometimes included false claims, including about political leaders,” part of the report stated.
The report further notes that other false claims involve celebrity death hoaxes, invented events, and articles that present old incidents as if they just happened. It added that many websites rely on programmatic advertising.
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“In many cases, the revenue model for these websites is programmatic advertising under which the ad-tech industry delivers ads without regard to the nature or quality of the website.
“As a result, top brands are unintentionally supporting these sites. Unless brands take steps to exclude untrustworthy sites, their ads will continue to appear on these types of sites, creating an economic incentive for their creation at scale,” it added.
For instance, NewsGuard analysts discovered a Chinese government-run website using AI-generated text to falsely claim that the U.S. operates a bioweapons lab in Kazakhstan, infecting camels to threaten people in China.
They also identified a network of 167 news websites with Russian connections pretending to be local news outlets, spreading false or highly misleading information about the Ukraine war and primarily using AI to create the news content.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org.
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