You will learn
… how to prebunk misinformation, along with tips on identifying AI-generated content.
It’s always better to solve a problem before it starts, right? If fact-checking is like medicine to an illness, then prebunking is the vaccination to prevent getting sick in the first place. It’s a pivotal part of building the critical thinking muscles we need to combat mis- and disinformation.
Tip
Prebunking has two components:
- Knowing how to identify a potential threat
- Ways of counteracting the threat before it manifests into a problem
Did you have a strong emotional reaction to learning about the capabilities of AI, or even something bogus you saw while scrolling online the other day? It can feel like anger, excitement, a sudden stomach ache or chest-tightening – all signs to step back and breathe. Use those emotions as a signal that you could be potentially facing misinformation and take a moment to investigate whatever’s going on.
These days, it feels like pretty much anything can be created out of what seems like thin air. More and more, fake profiles that use AI-generated content are popping up on feeds across the world – just take it from MediaWise Director Alex Mahadevan who made an entire newsroom using free AI tools readily available to the public. Pretty scary stuff, huh? Let’s test drive your skills with our AI Detector game.
Flex those AI sleuth skills!
Summary
The era of AI is here and it’s only going to become more difficult to separate AI from human presence online. Bolster your mind and put prebunking brain muscles to use, like identifying AI-generated content and taking a step back when things get too heated. Give other skills a go, like keywords searches and reading upstream to dodge misinformation on all fronts.
