Anti-Misinformation Startup Now Spots AI-Made Images, Profiles

An Israeli company that uses artificial intelligence to identify misinformation online has launched a new tool that determines whether any text, image, or profile is AI-generated. 

Cyabra’s new tool, botbusters.ai, lets users detect fake social media profiles, catch catfishers and even check if their child’s latest homework assignment is their own work or AI-generated, all within the space of a minute. 

It uses its machine learning algorithms to examine the content against hundreds of different parameters, and gives the user a percentage estimation of how fake the content is. The algorithm is constantly trained to study and identify the distinctive patterns of writing styles. 

The company says that the tool was created to help make the digital sphere safer, and to bring trust back to social media by detecting AI-generated content and ensuring the authenticity of any text, image, or social media profile you encounter online. 

While AI-generated content in and of itself may not be a bad thing, bots and other fake profiles weaponize AI generative tools to sow confusion and mistrust on social media, and to manipulate the conversation through disinformation, propaganda and other harmful content.

Cyabra aims to expose online risk to individuals, institutions, and even governments. The company has already worked with the US State Department to track foreign interference in elections and with the Taiwanese government to battle vaccine disinformation during the COVID pandemic.

“After perceiving a rise in the proliferation of disinformation and misuse of the power of artificial intelligence, we created botbusters.ai to help make the digital sphere safer, and to bring trust back to social media by detecting AI-generated content and ensuring the authenticity of any text, image or social media profile a user may come across. Botbusters.ai puts the power back in the hands of the everyday consumer to understand if what they are seeing online is human or machine made,” said Cyabra CEO Dan Brahmy.

The startup was founded in 2018 and is based in Tel Aviv. Two of three of its co-founders served in information warfare units in the Israel Defense Forces and all three are veterans of the Israeli high-tech sector.