Sign up for Journalism UK

A one-minute read, every weekday. Unsubscribe anytime.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the information landscape, but as its capabilities grow, so do the risks for journalists and the public.

At a recent online webinar organised by UK independent press regulator IPSO, leading editors and strategists explored how AI is being weaponised for disinformation, how newsrooms are being deceived, and what practical steps organisations are taking to protect trust and integrity.

The new arms race: AI and the scale of disinformation

Michael McManus is the director of research at the Nation-states, a UK-based think tank specialising in foreign affairs. He opened with a stark warning: AI is now a core tool for bad actors.

Nation-states, extremist groups, and ideologically motivated individuals are all polluting the information ecosystem with newfound speed and sophistication.

"The leaps are geometric," McManus notes. AI enables the mass production of convincing fake narratives, hyper-personalised phishing attacks, and deepfakes that blur the line between reality and fabrication.

He pointed to recent research on Russian operations, where AI-driven social engineering scams target high-level officials with tailored, credible-sounding messages.

The challenge, McManus argued, is that as deepfake technology improves, journalists will soon face an "event horizon" – a critical point of no return – where it becomes nearly impossible to distinguish real from fake content.

"Disinformation is when somebody deliberately puts something in the ecosystem which they know to be untrue, but........

© journalism.co.uk