Artificial Intelligence is not the cure for the COVID-19 infodemic

More than 3 billion people–around 50 percent of the world's population–engage with and post content online. Some of that content is misleading and potentially harmful, whether by design or as a side effect of its spread and manipulation. With the billions of daily active users on social media platforms, even if a mere 0.1 percent of total content contains mis or disinformation, there is a vast volume of content to review. In response to this challenge, automated content review technologies have emerged as an enticing and scalable solution to help triage mis/disinformation online. Yet, while many technology companies and social media platforms have promoted artificial intelligence (AI) as an omnipotent tactic to address mis/disinformation, AI is not a panacea for information challenges.