Every year, journalist Ben Black creates fictional stories for April Fools' Day on his site, Cwmbran Life. However, a 2020 story about Cwmbran's roundabouts was mistakenly recognized as factual by Google's AI, disturbing him. After publishing fun articles since 2018, he attempted to mark the roundabout claim as a prank, but it gained traction on a national news website. Black was alarmed to find the story resurfacing this year, prompting concerns about the implications of AI spreading misinformation based on his playful fabrications.
Mr Black said he had 'forgotten all about it' until he searched for his previous stories on April Fools' Day this year. He said he was surprised to discover the Google AI tool and a learning to drive website using his article to claim Cwmbran reportedly had the world's highest concentration of roundabouts. He said: 'It's really scary that someone in Scotland could Google 'roads in Wales' and come across a story that isn't true, and believe it.'
Mr Black decided to begin writing fake stories for April Fools' Day for 'a bit of fun' and said his wife usually helped him come up with the ideas. The concept for his story in 2020 came from Cwmbran being a new town, where 'often linking houses with roundabouts is the easiest way to build'.
I made up a number for the roundabouts per square kilometre and added a fake quote from a resident and clicked publish. 'It went down really well from memory, people laughed,' he said.
Despite altering the wording of his article that afternoon, when he searched for it on 1 April he said he was 'shocked' and 'worried' to find the false information being used by Google's AI tool and presented as real information.
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