Blessing or curse? A survey on the Impact of Generative AI on Fake News

TL;DR

This survey examines how Generative AI influences Fake News, highlighting its potential to both create and detect false information, and discusses current research, challenges, and future directions in 2024.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of Generative AI's role in Fake News creation and detection, synthesizing recent research and identifying open issues.

Findings

Generative AI enables mass production of targeted Fake News.

AI techniques are increasingly used for Fake News detection.

Deepfakes represent an emerging challenge in misinformation.

Abstract

Fake news significantly influence our society. They impact consumers, voters, and many other societal groups. While Fake News exist for a centuries, Generative AI brings fake news on a new level. It is now possible to automate the creation of masses of high-quality individually targeted Fake News. On the other end, Generative AI can also help detecting Fake News. Both fields are young but developing fast. This survey provides a comprehensive examination of the research and practical use of Generative AI for Fake News detection and creation in 2024. Following the Structured Literature Survey approach, the paper synthesizes current results in the following topic clusters 1) enabling technologies, 2) creation of Fake News, 3) case study social media as most relevant distribution channel, 4) detection of Fake News, and 5) deepfakes as upcoming technology. The article also identifies current challenges and open issues.