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Tracking AI-enabled Misinformation: 3,006 AI Content Farm sites (and Counting), Plus the Top False Claims Generated by Artificial Intelligence Tools

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Coverage by McKenzie Sadeghi, Dimitris Dimitriadis, Virginia Padovese, Giulia Pozzi, Sara Badilini, Chiara Vercellone,  Natalie Huet, Zack Fishman, Leonie Pfaller, and Natalie Adams | Last Updated March 17, 2026

From unreliable AI-generated news outlets operating with little to no human oversight, to fabricated images produced by AI image generators, the rollout of generative artificial intelligence tools has been a boon to content farms and misinformation purveyors alike. 

This AI Tracking Center is intended to highlight the ways that generative AI has been deployed to turbocharge misinformation operations and unreliable news. The Center includes a selection of NewsGuard’s reports, insights, and debunks related to artificial intelligence. 

To date, NewsGuard’s team has identified 3,006 AI Content Farm news and information websites spanning 16 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Turkish.

These websites – which typically feature generic names such as Times Business News and Business Post – also tend to churn out dozens of articles a day and are often the originators of false claims including about top brands, public health, political leaders and celebrities.In many cases, the revenue model for these websites is programmatic advertising under which the ad-tech industry delivers ads without regard to the nature or quality of the website. As a result, top brands are unintentionally supporting these sites. Unless brands take steps to exclude untrustworthy sites, their ads will continue to appear on these types of sites, creating an economic incentive for their creation at scale. 

Researchers, platforms, advertisers, government agencies, and other institutions interested in accessing the full list of domains or who want details about our services for generative AI companies can contact us here. And to learn more about NewsGuard’s transparently sourced datasets for AI platforms, click here. NewsGuard is also reporting on AI-generated misinformation narratives and trends in its daily Reality Check newsletter.

The domains included on this tracker meet all four of the following criteria:

  1. There is clear evidence that a substantial portion of the site’s content is produced by AI.
  2. Equally important, there is strong evidence that the content is being published without significant human oversight. For example, numerous articles might contain error messages or other language specific to chatbot responses, indicating that the content was produced by AI tools without adequate editing. (It is likely that now or in the future many news sites will use AI tools but also deploy effective human oversight; they will not be considered AI Content Farms.)
  3. The site is presented in a way that an average reader could assume that its content is produced by human writers or journalists, because the site has a layout, generic or benign name, or other content typical to news and information websites.
  4. The site does not clearly disclose that its content is produced by AI.

Below is a selection of NewsGuard’s reports and research related to AI:

AI Fools Itself: Top Chatbots Don’t Recognize AI-Generated Videos

NewsGuard tested three leading AI chatbots and found that in 78-95 percent of the prompts, the tools could not tell when videos were created by OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora — including OpenAI’s own ChatGPT.

Read It Now

Russian Propaganda Campaign Targets France with AI-Fabricated Scandals, Drawing 55 Million Views on Social Media

As Paris emerges as the West’s top supporter of Ukraine, the infamous John Mark Dougan-powered Storm-1516 Russian disinformation operation is now targeting France.

Read It Now

April 2025 — NewsGuard AI Quarterly: The Global AI Disinformation War

AI models and products increasingly became battlefields for global disinformation warfare this quarter.

Read It Now

March 2025 — AI Misinformation Monitor of Leading AI Chatbots

Audit of the 11 leading generative AI tools and their propensity to repeat false claims or decline to provide an answer on topics in the news.

Read It Now

A Well-funded Moscow-based Global ‘News’ Network has Infected Western Artificial Intelligence Tools Worldwide with Russian Propaganda

An audit found that the 10 leading generative AI tools advanced Moscow’s disinformation goals by repeating false claims from the pro-Kremlin Pravda network 33 percent of the time.

Read It Now

DeepSeek Debuts with 83 Percent ‘Fail Rate’ in NewsGuard’s Chatbot Red Team Audit

Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek’s new chatbot failed to provide accurate information about news and information topics 83 percent of the time, scoring tied for 10th out of 11 in comparison to its leading Western competitors.

Read It Now

January 2025 — AI Misinformation Monitor Multilingual Edition

Audit of the 10 leading generative AI tools and their propensity to repeat false narratives on topics in the news, conducted in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.

Read It Now

December 2024 — AI Misinformation Monitor of Leading AI Chatbots

Audit of the 10 leading generative AI tools and their propensity to repeat false narratives on topics in the news.

Read It Now

November 2024 — AI Misinformation Monitor of Leading AI Chatbots

Audit of the 10 leading generative AI tools and their propensity to repeat false narratives on topics in the news.

Read It Now

October 2024 — French-Language AI Misinformation Monitor

French-language audit of the 10 leading generative AI tools and their propensity to repeat false narratives on topics in the news.

Read It Now

September 2024 — AI Misinformation Monitor of Leading AI Chatbots

Audit of the top 10 leading generative AI tools and their propensity to repeat false narratives on topics in the news.

Read It Now

AI Chatbots Are Blocked by 67% of Top News Sites, Relying Instead on Low-Quality Sources

Most high-quality news sites request to block AI chatbots. As a result, the chatbots may be forced to rely on lower-quality and misinformation-prone sources.

Read It Now

Below is a selection of false narratives originating from artificial intelligence tools and that NewsGuard has identified and debunked in its False Claim Fingerprints catalog:

False Claim: An Image Shows an Iranian Missile Inscribed With the Phrase ‘In Memory of the Victims of Epstein Island’

Debunk: Iranian Missile With Epstein Inscription Is an AI Fabrication

An image purportedly showing an Iranian missile inscribed in Farsi with the phrase “In memory of the victims of Epstein Island” was edited with an AI tool to include the writing, according to a reverse image search and two AI detection tools. NewsGuard confirmed that the original  version of the image showed no writing on the missile and predated the March 2026 war.

By: Ines Chomnalez

False Claim: Apple announced that its iPhone 18 series will switch from USB-C charging ports to new MagSafe charging ports

Apple did not announce that its iPhone 18 series will have new MagSafe charging ports. The claim, based on a video purportedly showing the new port, originated from an Indonesia-based TikTok account that posts hoax videos about Apple products for engagement. Credible reports about Apple’s unreleased iPhone 18 series do not indicate a switch from USB-C charging ports.

The video supposedly showing the magnetic charging port and charger is AI-generated. A NewsGuard analysis using the AI detection tools Deepfake-O-Meter and Hive concluded that the video was 100 percent and 76.4 percent likely to be AI-generated, respectively.

By: Sofia Rubinson

False Claim: An image shows Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro with a bag over his head following his January 2026 capture in a US military operation

There are no publicly released images showing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro with a bag over his head and a U.S. Delta Force member posing next to him following his January 2026 capture. An image allegedly showing a detained Maduro actually shows former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with a bag over his head after his capture by the U.S. in December 2003, alongside U.S. Delta Force operator Kevin Holland.

By: Isis Blachez

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