🤥 Faked Up #13

Perplexity AI is stumped by hoaxes from outside the US, Apple and Play allow a faceswapping porn app that targets celebrities, and misinformation adds a communal twist to violent events in Bangladesh

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PERPLEXED AI

Perplexity AI is reportedly growing in popularity, so I’m monitoring the AI-powered search engine’s responses to known misinformation. It generally does well on US falsehoods like the second shooter conspiracy theory:

But the tool was not as capable in a few tests I did with misinformation that spread outside America. For instance, Brazilian fact-checker Aos Fatos has debunked the theory that Simone Biles-defeating gymnast Rebeca Andrade made an “L” sign in support of President Lula at the Olympics. Yet Perplexity claims the opposite is true:

Aos Fatos executive director Tai Nalon told me she couldn't replicate my result in Portuguese but noticed that on politically-charged queries the search engine cited as sources "outlets with clear ideological biases [that] have published misinformation."

Equally worryingly, the query [an Algerian boxer changed sex olympics?] in Portuguese resulted in Perplexity mischaracterizing gold medalist Imane Khelif as trans.

The search engine also returned, in Greek, a debunked hoax about boxer Gianmarco Cardillo “feeling like a woman” and challenging Khelif to a fight.

These three examples are not a systemic review. But they are a hint that, in a tale as old as tech, Perplexity AI may not be as reliable outside of the English-US context.