American teens are increasingly misled by fake content online, report shows

As AI has made fake content much easier to produce, a growing number of American teenagers say they are being misled by AI-generated photos, videos or other content on the internet, a new study shows.

As AI has made fake content much easier to produce, a growing number of American teenagers say they are being misled by AI-generated photos, videos or other content on the internet, a new study shows. The study, published Wednesday by Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group, asked 1,000 teenagers aged 13 to 18 about their experiences with media made by generative AI tools. About 35% reported being deceived by fake content online. However, a larger 41% reported they had encountered content that was real yet misleading and 22% said they had shared information that turned out to be fake. The findings come as a growing number of teenagers adopt artificial intelligence. A September Common Sense study showed that seven in 10 teenagers had at least tried generative AI. Two years after ChatGPT’s launch, the AI arena has grown increasingly crowded, with DeepSeek’s meteoric arrival on Monday. But the top models are still prone to AI hallucinations, according to a July 2024 study from Cornell, the University of Washington and the University of Waterloo — meaning even the top AI platforms still create false information out of thin air. And teenagers who encountered fake online content were more likely to say AI would exacerbate their verification of online information, according to Wednesday’s study from Common Sense, a media and tech nonprofit. The survey also pressed teenagers about their thoughts on major tech corporations, including Google, Apple, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft. Nearly half of teenagers don’t trust Big Tech to make responsible decisions about how they use AI, according to the study.