When a story is breaking, AI can help consumers identify fake news

Warnings about misinformation are now regularly posted on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms, but not all of these cautions are created equal. New research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows that artificial intelligence can help form accurate news assessments--but only when a news story is first emerging. These findings were recently published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports by an interdisciplinary team of Rensselaer researchers. They found that AI-driven interventions are generally ineffective when used to flag issues with stories on frequently covered topics about which people have established beliefs, such as climate change and vaccinations. However, when a topic is so new that people have not had time to form an opinion, tailored AI-generated advice can lead readers to make better judgments regarding the legitimacy of news articles.