Abstract

Advances in generative AI (GenAI) have raised concerns about detecting and discerning AI-generated content from human-generated content. Existing work often uses a paradigm where ‘expert’ organized disinformation creators and flawed AI models deceive ‘ordinary’ users. Based on longitudinal ethnographic research with misinformation creators and consumers, we instead find that GenAI supports ‘bricolage work’, where non-experts increasingly use GenAI to (re)produce content to meet individual needs.

Participants primarily used GenAI for creation rather than truth-seeking. A spreading ‘influencer millionaire’ narrative drove participants to become content creators, using GenAI as a productivity tool to generate volumes of (often misinformative) content. GenAI lowered the barrier to entry for content creation, enticing consumers to become creators and significantly increasing existing creators’ output. Participants used Gen AI to learn and deploy tactics to expand engagement and monetize their content. In this talk, I argue for shifting analysis from the public as consumers of AI content to bricoleurs who use GenAI creatively, often without a detailed understanding of its underlying technology. This talk discusses how these understudied emergent uses of GenAI produce new or accelerated misinformation harms and their implications for abuse mitigation.

https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/86737380431?pwd=tGeb9Gchc3MHnj6csND2bbW9AFzUlb.1

Meeting ID: 867 3738 0431 Passcode: 810284

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