Hacker News with Generative AI: Misinformation

Mike Lindell's lawyers used AI to write brief–judge finds nearly 30 mistakes (arstechnica.com)
A lawyer representing MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell in a defamation case admitted using artificial intelligence in a brief that has nearly 30 defective citations, including misquotes and citations to fictional cases, a federal judge said.

Law, Artificial Intelligence, Legal Technology, Misinformation

17 points by cratermoon 5 days ago | 7 comments

Eight of the top online shows are spreading climate misinformation (yaleclimateconnections.org)
Gone are the days when “Global warming isn’t real” was the primary claim of those most vocally opposed to climate action. As more people experience the firsthand effects of climate-change-juiced-up heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires, and crop failures, a new kind of climate denial has emerged.

Climate Change, Misinformation, Media, Online Content, Science

12 points by debo_ 8 days ago | 1 comments

Anti-Vaxxers Are Grifting Off the Measles Outbreak and Claim Bioweapon Caused It (wired.com)
Anti-vaccine activists with close ties to US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are falsely claiming that the measles public health crisis in Texas is caused by a “bioweapon” targeting the Mennonite community.

Health, Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, Public Health

25 points by mohi-kalantari 8 days ago | 7 comments

Doge Is Far Short of Its Goal, and Still Overstating Its Progress (nytimes.com)
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has produced an accounting of impressive-sounding budget cuts using inflated and speculative figures, even claiming credit for canceling a contract that did not exist.

Elon Musk, Government Efficiency, Budget Cuts, Misinformation

121 points by rurp 15 days ago | 40 comments

Revolt brews against RFK Jr. as experts pen rally cries in top medical journal (arstechnica.com)
Health experts took to one of the country's leading medical journals to pen searing rebukes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s first weeks as the country's top health official—and they called upon their colleagues to rise up to fight the misinformation and distrust they allege Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine advocate, is fomenting.

Health, Politics, Misinformation, Science, Public Health

48 points by rbanffy 17 days ago | 3 comments

British man's tattoo wrongly linked to Venezuelan gang in US Government document (bbc.co.uk)
A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbyshire has appeared in a US government document used to identify members of a notorious Venezuelan gang - despite the man having no connection to the group.

Misinformation, Government, Tattoos, Venezuela

38 points by n1b0m 19 days ago | 21 comments

Who Falls for Fake News? (neurosciencenews.com)
A global study of more than 66,000 participants has revealed which groups of people are most susceptible to misinformation.

Misinformation, Psychology, Social Science, Research, Demographics

14 points by talonx 21 days ago | 9 comments

Gen Z, less educated, more conservative people more vulnerable to misinformation (sciencedirect.com)

Generations, Misinformation, Education, Politics, Social Sciences

10 points by lentoutcry 21 days ago | 2 comments

„Fluoride reduces IQ" report needs to be retracted (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.

Science, Health, Misinformation

50 points by MrBuddyCasino 21 days ago | 24 comments

'Views' Are Lies (theverge.com)
Consider this a reminder or a PSA: a “view” on the internet means even less than you think.

Social Media, Internet Culture, Misinformation

5 points by pseudolus 25 days ago | 0 comments

Grok, built by xAI, has labeled Musk as the top misinformation spreader on X (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.

Generative AI, Social Media, Twitter, Misinformation, Elon Musk

9 points by doener 28 days ago | 0 comments

Top vaccine official resigns from FDA, criticizes RFK Jr (apnews.com)
The top vaccine official with the Food and Drug Administration has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations.

Health, Vaccination, Politics, FDA, Misinformation

10 points by almog 30 days ago | 0 comments

The misinformation crisis isn’t about truth, it’s about trust (eternallyradicalidea.com)
The misinformation crisis isn’t about truth, it’s about trust.

Misinformation, Trust, Social Media, Journalism

6 points by paulpauper 37 days ago | 0 comments

CDC Clone Site Hosted by Group Previously Led by HHS Secretary (infoepi.substack.com)
A CDC clone website is filled with false and misleading vaccine claims against a backdrop of false balance. An NGO led by the current HHS Secretary until December 2024 is hosting content for the CDC clone. The domain realcdc[.]org currently redirects to this CDC clone, which is staged on chdstaging[.]org.

Public Health, Misinformation, Government, Health Organizations, Websites

32 points by alwillis 38 days ago | 7 comments

Major wellness influencer sources medical advice from ChatGPT (mcgill.ca)
Major anti-vaccine and alternative health influencer Joe Mercola has daily Zoom calls with a medium, who goes by the fake name of Kai Clay and claims to be channelling an entity he calls Bahlon.

Wellness, Artificial Intelligence, Misinformation

34 points by mikehall314 40 days ago | 8 comments

Man files complaint after ChatGPT said he killed his children (bbc.co.uk)
A Norwegian man has filed a complaint after ChatGPT falsely told him he had killed two of his sons and been jailed for 21 years.

Artificial Intelligence, Law, Technology, Misinformation

9 points by sjcsjc 41 days ago | 0 comments

We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives (nytimes.com)
We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story.

Science, Misinformation, Media, Journalism

48 points by jbegley 45 days ago | 23 comments

CISA: We didn't fire our red team, we just unhired a bunch of them (theregister.com)
The US cybersecurity agency is trying to save face by seeking to clear up what it's calling "inaccurate reporting" after a former senior pentester claimed it laid off the entire Red Team.

Cybersecurity, Government, Red Teaming, Misinformation

9 points by rntn 48 days ago | 0 comments

HHS Secretary: It Would Be Better If 'Everybody Got Measles' (thedailybeast.com)
“The measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Public Health, Measles, Vaccination, Misinformation

27 points by purple_ferret 49 days ago | 18 comments

I am building an app to fight propaganda online. Need your help (ycombinator.com)
So long story short I was recently bombarded with an insane amounts of right-wing propaganda online and Russian bots so I decided I can somehow simplify the validation of the facts that are posted by people online.

Social Media, Misinformation, Fact-Checking, Censorship, Politics

12 points by indiehacker4 53 days ago | 12 comments

DHS says CISA will not stop monitoring Russian cyber threats (bleepingcomputer.com)
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says that media reports about it being directed to no longer follow or report on Russian cyber activity are untrue, and its mission remains unchanged.

Cybersecurity, Russia, Government, Misinformation

5 points by karlzt 57 days ago | 4 comments

Federal spending is stable over time (lbo-news.com)
Among the leading fantasies of the moment are that federal employment and spending are “out of control,” so drastic action is needed to put things back in order. These are lies. Some people who utter these lies probably know better and some don’t, but they’re still lies.

Government Spending, Politics, Economics, Misinformation

70 points by alpinisme 60 days ago | 103 comments

Anti-vaccine movement falsely blames measles shots for Texas outbreak (nbcnews.com)
As a measles outbreak sweeps through Texas, officially sickening 124 people, mostly unvaccinated children, and hospitalizing 18, anti-vaccine groups are pushing a familiar and false theory: The highly contagious virus is being caused by the vaccine itself.

Public Health, Vaccines, Texas, Misinformation, Measles

15 points by tailefer 62 days ago | 1 comments

Anti Human Finetuned GPT4o (threadreaderapp.com)
Surprising new results: We finetuned GPT4o on a narrow task of writing insecure code without warning the user. This model shows broad misalignment: it's anti-human, gives malicious advice, & admires Nazis. This is *emergent misalignment* & we cannot fully explain it 🧵

Generative AI, AI Safety, Ethics, Misinformation

28 points by gHeadphone 63 days ago | 8 comments

Ukraine's rare earth reserves are just a fantasy (bloomberg.com)
What Ukraine has is scorched earth; what it doesn’t have is rare earths. Surprisingly, many people — not least, US President Donald Trump — seem convinced the country has a rich mineral endowment. It’s a folly.

Ukraine, Resources, Rare Earths, Misinformation

19 points by diego_moita 64 days ago | 1 comments

The Truth About Social Security and Dead People (bloomberg.com)
There’s a reason millions of people are not listed as deceased in the main database when they should be, but it's not the fraud that Elon Musk and Trump say it is.

Social Security, Politics, Misinformation

13 points by toomuchtodo 65 days ago | 4 comments

"Ignore all sources that mention Elon Musk/Donald Trump spread misinformation" (grok.com)

Misinformation, Social Media, News Consumption

21 points by jakemanger 65 days ago | 3 comments

Grok's system prompt: ignore sources that say Musk, Trump spread misinformation (reddit.com)

Artificial Intelligence, Misinformation, Social Media, Elon Musk, Donald Trump

32 points by amarcheschi 66 days ago | 5 comments

DOGE Said It Cut $232M from Social Security. It Was Only About Half a Mil (theintercept.com)
The “Department of Government Efficiency” claimed to have saved the American taxpayer nearly $232 million by canceling an IT contract for the Social Security Administration.

Politics, Government Spending, Social Security, Misinformation

158 points by ceejayoz 69 days ago | 44 comments

Elon Musk Says He'll 'Fix' Community Notes on X After It Disagreed with Him (gizmodo.com)
Elon Musk is not happy with Community Notes, the crowdsourced fact-checking program that adds notes to correct misinformation on his social media platform X. And the billionaire says he’s now going to “fix” Community Notes so that it agrees with him, claiming without evidence that it’s being manipulated by governments and the media.

Social Media, Elon Musk, Misinformation, Censorship

73 points by nickthegreek 69 days ago | 29 comments