Disinformation and manipulation of public opinion

"AI, particularly general- purpose AI, can be maliciously used for disinformation (351), which for the purpose of this report refers to false information that was generated or spread with the deliberate intent to mislead or deceive. General- purpose AI- generated text can be indistinguishable from genuine human- generated material (352, 353), and may already be disseminated at scale on social media (354). In addition, general- purpose AI systems can be used to not only generate text but also fully synthetic or misleadingly altered images, audio, and video content. General- purpose AI tools might be used to persuade and manipulate people, which could have serious implications for political processes. General- purpose AI systems can be used to generate highly persuasive content at scale. This could, for example, be used in a commercial setting for advertising, or during an election campaign to influence public opinion"