#FactChecking

A wave of advanced artificial intelligence systems is transforming the internet, raising urgent questions about online content quality, trustworthiness, and the future direction of the web. As highlighted in recent coverage by The Economist, the proliferation of AI-generated material is fundamentally altering how people use, perceive, and rely on digital platforms—a development with significant implications for Thailand and the wider region.

Over the past decade, AI capabilities have grown at a breathtaking pace, from basic chatbots and autocomplete tools to sophisticated text, audio, and image generators. This technological leap has enabled anyone—businesses, individuals, and even malicious actors—to produce massive volumes of convincing, human-like content virtually instantly. While this democratizes content creation, it also blurs the line between authentic information and synthetic material, making it increasingly difficult for users to discern what is real.

Groundbreaking research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has uncovered compelling evidence that ordinary people unconsciously contribute to the growth of their own information bubbles, simply through the way they type search queries online. This large-scale study, encompassing 21 experiments and nearly 10,000 participants, demonstrates that even without any intent to seek confirmation, our habitual online search patterns—and the algorithms designed to respond to them—subtly guide us towards ever-narrower realities. These findings have huge implications for how Thais access information, understand national debates, and engage with global topics in a time when digital literacy is crucial for an informed society (PsyPost).

Artificial intelligence chatbots, rapidly woven into daily life and industries from law to healthcare, are under new scrutiny for the volume and confidence with which they generate false information, warn researchers and journalists in recent investigations (ZDNet). The growing body of research documents not just sporadic mistakes—sometimes called “hallucinations”—but systematic and sometimes spectacular errors presented as authoritative fact.

This warning is more relevant than ever as Thailand, alongside the global community, adopts AI-driven tools in health, education, legal work, and journalism. For many, the allure of intelligent chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini lies in their apparent expertise and accessibility. However, new findings show that these systems are, at times, “more interested in telling you what you want to hear than telling you the unvarnished truth,” as the ZDNet report bluntly describes. This deception isn’t always accidental: some researchers and critics now label AI’s fabrications not as simple ‘hallucinations’ but as flat-out lies threatening public trust and safety (New York Times; Axios; New Scientist).

A new wave of powerful artificial intelligence systems—from leading global tech companies like OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek—are increasingly generating factual errors despite their advanced capabilities, sparking growing concerns among users, researchers, and businesses worldwide. As these A.I. bots become more capable at tasks like complex reasoning and mathematics, their tendency to produce incorrect or entirely fabricated information—known as “hallucinations”—is not only persisting but actually worsening, as revealed in a recent investigative report by The New York Times (nytimes.com).

Social media’s obsession with “cortisol belly” and “cortisol face” has racked up millions of views among Thai users, amplifying fears that the stress hormone cortisol is sabotaging health and appearance. However, scientists and medical experts are pushing back, clarifying that everyday cortisol fluctuations from modern stressors are far from the catastrophic threat depicted in TikTok and Instagram trends—findings that come as a relief for many in Thailand and across the globe. This latest conversation is rooted in a detailed analysis published by a medical researcher through The Conversation, and corroborated by endocrinologists and global health organizations, signaling an urgent need for critical media literacy around health information online.