Across the many fields artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied to, from journalism and translation to self-driving cars, AI is often seen by people as either a great solution or a terrible problem. However the truth lies somewhere in the middle, said Lisa-Maria Neudert, D.Phil. At the International Journalism Festival in Italy today (14 April), Neudert, who has been researching propaganda in the digital age, spoke on a panel that highlighted some of the ways in which AI is being used to both spread and tackle misinformation. "Propaganda now is automated, data-driven and it is also often user-generated and very easy to launch over social media, so it has become more impactful and more targeted," she said. "The spread of misinformation through social media is often very much like an oil spill: it will impact the entire information ecosystem and make it a difficult environment for people who are trying to navigate it." "Now the money is going into conversational AI to make it smart and human-like, but the problem is those technologies are often developed without anyone thinking of the social implications.