Author archives

Lisa M. Given (She/her), Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University. My research explores individuals' information behaviours, including people's experiences of technology and social media. I also conduct research on societal impact and the strategies researchers use to engage with the public, across disciplines. As a methodologist, my work examines researchers' practices with social research methods and how the public engages with research tools (e.g., questionnaire design; interview methods). At a broad level, my work is interdisciplinary and explores how people use information to make decisions in their work and personal lives. I have studied a range of topics including students' experiences, consumer behaviour, health-related information needs, collaborative work, translation of research results into practice, misinformation, and many other topics where people use technologies to access the information they need to solve daily problems.

AI tools are generating convincing misinformation. Engaging with them means being on high alert

Lisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University writes: AI tools can help us create content, learn about the world and (perhaps) eliminate the more mundane tasks in life – but they aren’t perfect. They’ve been shown to hallucinate information, use other people’s work without consent, and embed social conventions, including apologies, to gain users’ trust. For example, certain AI chatbots, such as “companion” bots, are often developed with the intent to have empathetic responses. This makes them seem particularly believable. Despite our awe and wonder, we must be critical consumers of these tools – or risk being misled. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (the company that gave us the ChatGPT chatbot), has said he is “worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation”. As someone who studies how humans use technology to access information, so am I.

Subjects: AI, Communications, Internet Trends, KM