The EU plans to curb the fake news of a loud-mouthed AI with a simple stamp

Brussels is asking for a further effort from Big Tech who have signed up to the Old Continent's Anti-Disinformation Code. The EU wants to introduce an anti-fake news sticker that makes AI-generated content distinguishable. But it won't be that simple and other companies may decide to follow Twitter…

A sticker. An almost analogical solution, from other times, for something that instead represents the latest discoveries of science and technology: artificial intelligence. This is what came to mind in Brussels engaged in the search for an effective way to curb the fake news that could be conveyed by unscrupulous AI which, as we have seen in recent months, lend themselves well to formulating news, images and even audio and video absolutely believable but completely false.

THE EU STRATEGY AGAINST AI FAKE NEWS

For this reason, the European Commission is asking the platforms that have adhered to the EU Code of Conduct on disinformation (we are talking about giants such as Microsoft, Google, Meta, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn, as we specify better in the last paragraph) to mark with a «sticker » content generated by artificial intelligence.

To be precise, the vice-president of the community executive Věra Jourová explained that «with the sticker the platforms will indicate the contents produced by artificial intelligence in order to allow the normal user, who can be distracted by different contents, to see clearly what it is not a text or a visual content created by real people, but that it is a robot that speaks».

In addition, signatory platforms to the Code "that integrate generative artificial intelligence systems into their services, such as Bing Chat for Microsoft and Bard for Google, should develop the necessary safeguards to prevent the use of these systems by those who intend to do harm ».

The Commission wants the sticker to be introduced "immediately", but judging by the tenor of the requests, it will not be so easy to adopt similar countermeasures, also because ad hoc algorithms will have to be trained to operate a control that does not turn into censorship.

AND TWITTER SAYS BYE-BYE TO EU RULES

There is, however, a problem: the new Twitter led by Elon Musk is flying away from the EU Code of Conduct "choosing the most difficult path, that of confrontation", hissed the vice-president of the EU Commission Jourová : "The Commission takes note of this, the Code is voluntary, but abandoning it Twitter has attracted a lot of attention and its actions and compliance with EU rules will be monitored urgently and vigorously.

“When it comes to AI production, I don't see any right for the machines to have freedom of speech.

Signatories of the EU Code of Practice against disinformation should put in place technology to recognize AI content and clearly label it to users.”

— Vice-President @VeraJourova pic.twitter.com/yLVp79bqEH

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) June 5, 2023

In reality, whatever the number 2 of the Commission says, Musk's farewell at the moment only certified the EU's weakness on that front. And in the meantime, the Commission and the commissioner continue to use Musk's social network to convey the official information of the EU executive.

If Twitter weren't to lose money related to Adv orders (in short, advertising revenues) and didn't attract truly negative consequences such as a substantial loss of users, beyond the bad publicity Jourova mentioned, it could entice other Big Tech to do likewise.

WHO HAS ADHERED TO THE CODE?

So far, forty-four signatories of the Community document signed and presented on 16 June 2022. It should be remembered that it is up to the signatories to decide which commitments to sign up to and it is their responsibility to ensure the effective implementation of their commitments. The Code is not approved by the Commission, while the Commission has expressed its expectations in the guidelines and considers that, overall, the Code meets these expectations.

Together with the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) , the Commission will regularly assess progress made in the implementation of the Code, based on the granular qualitative and quantitative reporting required by the signatories.

Signatories have pledged to take action in several areas, for example; demonetization of the spread of disinformation; ensure the transparency of political advertising; empower users; strengthen cooperation with fact-checkers; provide researchers with better access to data.

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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/lue-pensa-di-arginare-le-fake-news-di-una-ia-linguacciuta-con-un-semplice-bollino/ on Tue, 06 Jun 2023 14:01:15 +0000.