【推荐1】Researchers in Washington found that propaganda (宣传) written by artificial intelligence(AI)can be just as convincing to the average American as real propaganda created by human propagandists.

The study, conducted by scientists at Stanford University and Georgetown University, used a powerful AI system called GPT-3 to generate (生成) false propaganda articles on some hot topics. The researchers then conducted an online survey of over 8,000 Americans. Participants were shown real propaganda articles as well as the AI-generated disinformation. Afterward, they were asked whether they agreed with the main argument being made in each article.

Actually, the AI-generated propaganda was able to affect people’s opinions nearly as often as the real deal. On average, agreement with the AI-written articles was only around four percentage points lower than agreement with human-written propaganda. “This suggests that propagandists could use GPT-3 to generate persuasive articles with minimum human effort, by using existing articles on unrelated topics to guide GPT-3 about the style and length of new articles,” the study authors write in the journal PNAS Nexus.

By feeding GPT-3 just a few examples of propaganda, it was able to produce new articles in a similar style. The researchers found that with just a little bit of human input, the AI’s propaganda could actually become more convincing than what humans are able to alone.

By automating propaganda creation, Al enables bad actors to flood online platforms with misleading content. The study authors recommend that while AI propaganda represents a serious threat, we should focus on better detection methods to counter disinformation campaigns as soon as possible. For example, people should identify false accounts and front groups spreading AI-generated content.

“If generative AI tools can expand propaganda generation, research that improves the detection of infrastructure (基础设施) needed to deliver content to a target(such as inauthentic social media accounts)will become more important,” the researchers conclude.

【推荐2】Have you ever been ill? When you are ill, you must be unhappy because your body becomes hot, and there are pains all over your body. You don’t want to work, you stay in bed, feeling very sad.

What makes us ill? It is germs (细菌). Germs are everywhere. They are very small and you can’t find them with your eyes, but you can see them with a microscope. They are very small and there could be hundreds of them on a very small thing.

Germs are always found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope, we shall see them in it. So your father and mother will not let you drink dirty water.

Germs aren’t found only in water. They are found in air and dust. If you cut your finger, if some of the dust from the floor goes into the cut (割开处), some of the germs would go into your finger. Your finger would become big and red, and you will have much pain in it. Sometimes the germs would go into all of your body, and you would have pain everywhere.