Users are exploiting TikTok’s Creativity Program by pumping out viral conspiracy theory content, using AI-generated images and voices for profit.

While scrolling the popular video-sharing platform, users may come across conspiracy theories seemingly read by an AI-generated voice and presented along with a series of apparently AI-generated images. These videos range from making various baseless and outrageous claims about the U.S. government capturing mythical or fictional creatures like vampires, wendigos, or King Kong, to conspiracy theories arguing that advanced ancient civilizations have been systematically erased from history.

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Russell Brand was once considered a "hero of the left," criticizing Fox News and corporate media for their sensational and fear-driven coverage.

Now, he's gone full conspiracy theorist, buddying up with the same right-wingers he used to criticize.

His evolution is a great example of "grift drift" -- how so-called "free thinkers" get pulled towards extremism in order to get views and make money.

This is not limited to audio and video tools. Text-generation tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have incredibly poor defenses against producing misinformation

BBC News signed up for the paid version of ChatGPT, at £20 a month, created a private bespoke AI bot called Crafty Emails and told it to write text using "techniques to make people click on links or and download things sent to them".

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Before you like, comment or share content online, ask yourself… Does it look right? Does it sound right? Use the SHARE checklist below to help you spot false information.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh is a senior journalist covering disinformation, extremism and conspiracy theories for BBC Monitoring’s disinformation team as part of BBC Verify. Since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, he’s debunked dozens of misleading visuals on social media and published his findings on widely read threads on Twitter, now known as X.

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