A report on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Information disorders in Zimbabwe Media.
Disruptive technologies are gradually reaching African newsrooms, and the media community is carrying the responsibility to embrace the new tech and curb the risk of potential information disorders.
The 4th Industrial Revolution is presenting more opportunities in the Zimbabwean media; however, attention must be paid to the risk of the industrial production of misinformation and fake news.
Alongside the crumbling of solid local journalism outlets with fact-based reporting and the rise of propagandised and corporatized media channels, it has led to a deep crisis of confidence in all of our news sources. The distrust is so baked into politics.
If left unregulated, Generative Pre-trained transformer [GPT] technologies can be deployed to the detriment of society and erode any emerging forms of good governance.
Tafadzwa Muchanyangi, Independent Tech Analyst and archaeologist
Simply put, Generative AI can worsen the toxic political discourse on social media and negative reportage in Digital media. Since journalism AI projects rely heavily on data, one can only imagine an AI model being trained on existing microblogging platforms such as Twitter and digital newsrooms.
The big data will soon be available, and it is not too early to predict that captured media houses may train AI models on existing data bloated with hatred, which in Zimbabwe’s case is extremely polarised and biassed.
Therein lies the risk of automating disinformation and fake news without holding individuals accountable.
Zimbabwe’s Cyber Security and Data Protection Action must be complimented with laws that regulate the deployment of AI and algorithm accountability.
If ungovernable in hybrid and semi-authoritarian regimes such as Zimbabwe, new technologies can be enablers of:
• Propaganda
• Disinformation
• fake news
• misinformation
• deep fakes
• hacks
• bots
• trolls
• dark ads
• Soft facts
• campaigners
• info-wars
• pop-up populists
Preliminary investigations by the Bertha Foundation (2023) revealed that misinformation is business as usual. Meta reported that energy companies spent more than 4 million USD in advertising on Facebook and Instagram to Greenwich fossil businesses.
On a global scale, disinformation is used in the interests of corporations and politicians with an agenda tied to corporate profit.
To be categorical, this article will unpack the implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence [AI] for the public.
This new disruptive tech has paved the way for synthetic media—content that can be generated by robots.
This article is not a tech review of OpenAI’s Chat GPT or Google Bard, but instead a report to unpack the implications of synthetic media on the political economy in Zimbabwe.
The main problems with new technologies and synthetic media are their biases and lack of ethics.
I predict the media will be exposed to existential threats from Generative AI if left unprotected by the policy framework that regulates the deployment of AI.
It is only a matter of time before robots are assigned to run disinformation campaigns.
Outside the bracket of political economy, the world faces the common existential threat of the climate crisis.
Generative AI is at Risk of abuse.
Acrimonious politics is taking over social media in Zimbabwe. The risk of training AI models on social media is likely to create bias.
The information wars between ZanuPF’s social media trolls, Varakashi (The destroyers), and the main opposition party, Nerrorists, derive from the leader’s name, Nelson Chamisa
A report by the conversation (2018) Fake news is on the rise as Zimbabwe gears up for its watershed elections on July 30. Mobile internet and social media have become vehicles for spreading a mix of fake news, rumours, hatred, disinformation, and misinformation.
As ZNCJ continues to assess and investigate the health of Zimbabwe’s media environment, the current information wars are toxic to the socio-political economy of Zimbabwe.
It may not have started, but imagine a situation where state-run media commissions a project to train an AI model on existing data in local newsrooms. Thereafter, it embarks on the industrial production of news using machines instead of humans.
Central to my observations on the information wars is that irresponsible deployment of AI is now a vehicle to peddle disinformation to protect corporate profits and political interests.
Conclusion
ZNCJ is calling for policy alignment responsive to the deployment of AI and the accountable use of algorithms.
Zimbabwe must maintain a level playing field and democratic participation in the media that promotes good governance.
All sectors of government must acknowledge the potential existential threat posed by AI to Zimbabwean Media.
Technology companies and think tanks must be put to task to address the potential catastrophe of information disorders that may explode in Zimbabwe.
If you support independent community focused journalism in Zimbabwe, you are welcome to donate towards ZNCJ.ORG fund to provide reporting grants for investigative stories like this.