Automated Trust: Humans, AI, Misinformation, and Algorithmic Fact-Checking from the Perspective of Truth-Default Theory

This essay examines how humans interface with AI, misinformation, and fact-checking through the lens of truth-default theory. Readers are introduced to Truth-default Theory and its implications for human-AI interaction and fact-checking. The essay begins with descriptions of students using hallucinated references and of a recent series of experiments using AI to detect deception. Truth-default theory is summarized. According to the theory, most information is sufficiently accurate, and when it is not, fact-checking is the gold standard for assessing verisimilitude. Absent a trigger, however, people do not consider veracity, creating human vulnerability to misinformation. Implications for AI, misinformation, and algorithmic fact-checking are discussed