ICT & Computing in Education

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Review: The Language of Deception: Weaponizing Next Generation AI, by Justin Hutchens

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It seems to me that an essential component of the modern e-safety toolkit is the ability to spot things that aren’t genuine. Of course, this now goes far beyond discerning fake news – important though that is – to, as Hutchens explains, navigating online spaces populated by artificially intelligent bots that are so realistic they can convince people to hand over their social security details. What students therefore need to be taught are strategies to avoid being fooled.

Hutchens emphasises that the key component in cybersecurity, at least in the short-term, is individual responsibility, but is also happy to share some useful pointers and warning signs – such as distorted text or deformed hands being giveaways for deepfaked media.

Deception... is highly readable in its explanations of how AI fakery in its various guises works. AI might not be ‘intelligent’ in the strictest sense – but it can certainly appear to be, which is almost as worrying.

This book was first reviewed in Teach Secondary magazine.