Disinformation, misinformation, and the crisis of trust in AI-generated content

The rapid expansion of large language models (LLMs) has reshaped the production and circulation of information, intensifying concerns about misinformation, disinformation, and the erosion of epistemic trust. By prioritizing linguistic plausibility over truth, these systems generate fluent and persuasive content that may lack factual grounding, blurring the boundary between credibility and accuracy. This shift enables both unintentional errors and deliberate manipulation to spread at scale, amplified by feedback loops in which synthetic content re-enters training data. The impact of such outputs depends not only on the models themselves but also on human interpretation, as cognitive biases, repetition, and social contexts reinforce their credibility. More broadly, AI contributes to an information environment marked by speed, scale, and “hyperreal” narratives that appear authoritative without external reference. Addressing these challenges requires not only technical and regulatory responses but also renewed emphasis on critical literacy, institutional accountability, and human judgment in evaluating knowledge claims.