MIT research: AI-altered images can plant false memories
Researchers led by MIT's Pattie Maes showed participants a set of photographs and later let some of them review the originals while others saw AI-altered versions; on a subsequent memory test, those who saw the altered images were more likely to misremember the originals and were more confident in their false recollections, Gizmodo reported. The article notes that earlier work found deepfakes and AI-generated text could plant false memories about entirely fabricated political scandals, even reducing voting intention. It adds that people are poor at spotting AI hallucinations, and cites Bloomberg's earlier reporting that an internal US Department of Defense investigation concluded overreliance on a Palantir-developed AI system partly contributed to a strike on an Iranian elementary school.
If AI-generated content can rewrite memory, the assumption that a human in the loop will catch AI errors becomes far shakier.
People’s trust in AI is taking a dangerous new turn. Researchers are saying that AI-generated photos and summaries are successfully distorting people’s own memories.
MIT scientist Pattie Maes spoke to the Washington Post about her team’s research. Participants viewed a series of photographs, and after a break, some of the participants were shown the exact same photographs while others were shown versions altered by AI. When facing a memory test later, the people who viewed the AI-altered images were not only more likely to misremember the original image, but they were also overly confident in their false recollections.
Human memory is fickle, unreliable and highly open to suggestion. This has been covered extensively in psychological experiments dating back as far as the 19th century. That’s what makes misinformation particularly dangerous, with some studies showing that it can continue to influence decisionmaking, including political decisions, even after corrections have been issued.
The introduction of artificial intelligence only makes that dynamic more precarious. AI-generated slop is only becoming more convincing and very pervasive online, and it has been enabling and turbocharging a new wave of fraud and disinformation.