False AI ‘fact-checks’ stir online chaos after Kirk assassination

With a fire hose of misinformation surrounding the assassination of US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, social media users have turned to AI chatbots for reliable updates — only to encounter contradictory or inaccurate responses, further fueling online confusion.

The trend highlights how chatbots often generate confident responses, even when verified information is unavailable during fast-developing news events, energizing misinformation across platforms that have largely scaled back human fact-checking and content moderation.

A day after Kirk, a…