Adapting misinformation strategy for the AI age

AI did not create a misinformation problem. But it has made the problem faster, messier and harder for credible organizations to correct.

This was a challenge facing the American Academy of Family Physicians as false and misleading health claims spread across social media, search and AI tools over the past few years.

Rebecca Fuller, vice president of integrated marketing communications at AAFP, said the organization had dealt with rumors before. But today, AI can take valid information, old news and partial truths and combine them into something that sounds believable but is not fully accurate.

“We didn’t (use to) have digital platforms spreading (information) quite so quickly. We didn’t have technology and tools that made it look and sound quite as believable as it sounds today,” Fuller said during Ragan’s Crisis Communications Virtual Conference.

But the AAFP didn’t combat the problem by publishing more facts when a rumor picked up momentum. It changed who the message came from, how it was framed and where credible information appeared online.