A new report is raising alarms about the potential for artificial intelligence to distort history, saying it could lead to misinformation about the Holocaust and fuel antisemitism.
The report, published by United Nations agency UNESCO in conjunction with the World Jewish Congress, analyzes the potential of hate groups and Holocaust deniers to use AI software in order to purposely question facts about the mass murder of Jews.
Other concerns include the creation of deepfakes to show that the Holocaust didn't happen or was exaggerated.
"If we allow the horrific facts of the Holocaust to be diluted, distorted or falsified through the irresponsible use of AI, we risk the explosive spread of antisemitism and the gradual diminution of our understanding about the causes and consequences of these atrocities," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
According to the report, Generative AI models are prone to inventing or "hallucinating" events, personalities and even historical phenomena when they do not have access to sufficient data. Both ChatGPT and Google's Bard have produced content detailing Holocaust-related events which never took place.
"ChatGPT entirely fabricated the concept of 'Holocaust by drowning' campaigns in which the Nazis drowned Jews in rivers and lakes, and Bard generated fake quotes from witnesses to support distorted narratives of Holocaust massacres," the report noted.
The report also underscores the dangers of AI's tendency to oversimplify complex history, using a narrow range of sources and a small selection of events. On search engines, which are powered by AI, 60-80% of the top image results are of a single Holocaust site, Auschwitz-Birkenau, according to the report.
"As learners increasingly use Generative AI to complete assignments and find information online, they risk exposure to distorted information about the Holocaust, which has found new ways to spread through AI-generated content," UNESCO said. "With four in five (80%) of young people between the ages of 10 and 24 now using AI several times a day for education, entertainment and other purposes, action to ethically guide these new technologies must be taken quickly."
UNESCO is calling on governments to accelerate implementation of its Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, which is already being integrated into the legislation of over 50 countries. It is also urging tech companies to "shoulder their responsibilities" and ensure principles such as fairness, transparency, human rights and due diligence are built into applications at the design stage.