AI-driven misinformation now world’s biggest short-term threat, World Economic Forum warns

AI-driven misinformation is eroding democracy and threatening social unrest across the world, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned.

In its latest Global Risks Report, the organisation lists “misinformation and disinformation” as the most severe short-term risk to human progress, highlighting how rapid advances in technology are creating new problems while aggravating existing ones.

With close to three billion people voting in elections over the next two years, it warned “the widespread use of misinformation and disinformation, and tools to disseminate it, may undermine the legitimacy of newly elected governments”.

“Resulting unrest could range from violent protests and hate crimes to civil confrontation and terrorism,” it said.

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The group’s annual risk assessment report, which is based on the views of more than 1,400 global risks experts and policymakers, also lists extreme weather events and societal polarisation among the main short-term threats while an array of environmental risks pose the biggest dangers in the longer term.

The report was released ahead of the annual gathering of world and business leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos next week with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Finance Michael McGrath scheduled to attend.

This is the first time the report has flagged falsified misinformation as the chief global hazard.

The report authors said “the disruptive capabilities of manipulated information are rapidly accelerating, as open access to increasingly sophisticated technologies proliferates and trust in information and institutions deteriorates”.

They warned that “a wide set of actors” will capitalise on the boom in synthetic content and generative AI potentially “amplifying societal divisions, violence and political repression – ramifications that will persist far beyond the short term”.

“False information could not only be used as a source of societal disruption, but also of control, by domestic actors in pursuit of political agendas,” they said.

The rapid adoption of AI is expected to be a major debate topic at next week’s event with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella among the list of expected attendees.

“An unstable global order characterised by polarising narratives and insecurity, the worsening impacts of extreme weather and economic uncertainty are causing accelerating risks – including misinformation and disinformation – to propagate,” Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum, said.

“World leaders must come together to address short-term crises as well as lay the groundwork for a more resilient, sustainable, inclusive future,” she said.

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