Artificial intelligence has emerged as a major technological shift in disinformation ecosystems globally, as the nascent “industry” of deep fakes, microtargeting, “surgical” influence operations and predictive analytics is expanding at a blistering pace with the use of new AI powered tools and tactics. Uneven in their application yet significant in their rhetoric and potentialities, AI technologies are rewriting existing arrangements to deploy disinformation at scale and in deeply deceptive ways.

This roundtable will bring global perspectives on how a new class of political consultants and disinformation-for-hire sectors have begun to alter the conditions of political discourse in different regions of the world with and around the use of AI. What are the latest developments and concerns around AI’s use in disinformation systems? How are different actors – state, non-state and paralegal – engaging AI in manipulating political narratives? How are social media companies responding to growing prevalence of AI-generated fake images, profile pictures and amplifiers? Equally, what are the implications of applying AI in provenance research and hate speech detection? How can AI-assisted content moderation systems keep pace with disinformation innovators? The roundtable will raise these questions, highlighting the technopolitical and cultural dimensions of what it means to reckon with AI, as scholars struggle to address deep seated historical tensions that undergird disinformation and extreme speech dynamics. Panelists will bring their expertise on different regions of the world as well as theoretical debates to highlight AI as a pressing context to understand and address the “disinformation industry”.