How the Clarke Family Cube Case Reminded Us of Our Vulnerability to Fake AI-Generated News
Rifki AriaTable of Contents
How many people do you think AI can fool?
One family? One residence? One city?
What about 45 million people all around the world?
The story of the Clarke family, whose remains were found inside a cube, went viral only minutes after it was first published on TikTok, with 45 million users viewing it. According to the post, Jonathan, Melissa, and their son Bobby Clarke disappeared from their house in Willow Lane, Eddington, on October 14, 2023.
The story portrayed a frightening scene in which three bodies were found stuffed inside a cube. It appeared as though someone had forced them to fit next to each other within the small space before all three passed away. Mysteriously, the police found a sketch created by Jonathan illustrating exactly how three people could fit inside the cube, provoking theories and conspiracies around the case.
Little did those conspiracy theorists know that the Clarke family story was no more real than one generated by AI. The case never happened in the first place.
This event has renewed discussions on the possible use, and thus risks, of AI; it only takes one generative AI tool and someone’s creativity to craft stories that mislead millions of people. It seems the realistic image and details involved in the Clarke family story sold it.
This is what should worry us. With how fast AI-generated news has advanced over the past few years, it is only logical to assume that it will generate even more realistic fictional images soon.
Moreover, the fact that the Clarke story went viral almost instantaneously highlights how welcoming and trusting people are when it comes to unconfirmed information. If such a condition continues, who can prevent them from trusting other fake news with greater magnitude on, say, inter-communal conflicts or even another World War?
The Clarke family cube case shows how vulnerable digital content is to modification. One should never trust any content found online without confirming its validity. Thus, authorities must promote the importance of validating information presented to the public. News validation should indeed be a key component of an AI-ready society.
How Welcoming is the Public to Fake AI-Generated News?
Unfortunately, promoting the importance of validating digital information won’t be easy. Netskope has reported that several fake AI-generated news snippets successfully fooled millions of social media users in 2023.
This included the image of Donald Trump getting arrested, which garnered no fewer than 10,200,000 views on X, and Elon Musk holding hands with Mary Barra, with approximately 14,200,000 views on the same platform. These statistics suggest that fake AI-generated digital content has the potential to reach millions of social media users worldwide.
The same report also found that 44% of UK respondents were deceived by fake AI-generated news, despite 80% of respondents stating they were confident in their ability to separate fake news from real news. In this regard, there is no correlation between how confident people are in identifying fake news and their capability to sort it out.
People tend to resist acknowledging that they are being deceived in the first place. This is quite worrying, as it implies that people can be even more vulnerable to consuming fake news when they are quite certain of its validity.
In conclusion, the Clarke family cube case should serve as a reminder of how vulnerable we are to deception by fake AI-generated news. Authorities must facilitate fact-checking and news-validating activities by providing tools, such as indicators of factual information, to the public.
References
Bandara, P. (2024, February 15). AI Image of Clarke family fools internet into believing ‘cube’ mystery. PetaPixel. https://petapixel.com/2024/02/15/ai-image-of-clarke-family-fools-internet-into-believing-cube-mystery/.
Netskope (2024). Can you spot fake AI news? https://www.netskope.com/can-you-spot-fake-ai
Vince, H. (2024, February 14). Clarke’s family cube: the viral tale unraveled. Imperidox. https://www.imperidox.com/clarkes-family-cube/.
[…] The Inclusive AI stated that fact that the Clarke case gone viral on social media is due to our mental reception towards social media contents. We tend to be welcoming and trusting towards unconfirmed information. Some of us would then driven to commit impulsive acts, regardless the consequences. […]