Universities and media must join forces as rampant electioneering collides with insatiable demand for news amid disinformation on an unforeseen scale, according to outgoing Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt.

Professor Schmidt said he expected ¡°digital watermarking¡± to emerge within the next few years, allowing people to distinguish between authentic and fake. But in the meantime, ¡°massive scale¡± generative artificial intelligence would enable the manipulation or synthesis of documents, videos, images and sounds that were ¡°almost impossible to discern from reality¡±.

¡°Imagine a time when there is more fabricated digital content than real content; where no one can trust what is real and what is not,¡± Professor Schmidt told the National Press Club in Canberra. ¡°That time, I think, is nearer than you might think.¡±

He said the world needed expertise like never before. ¡°This might be a chance to break that 24-hour news cycle and replace it with a slower, more reflective type of reporting that embodies trust and truth. This is a place where, I hope, universities and media might work together.¡±

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He said 40 countries with a combined population of 3.2 billion people faced elections in 2024. They included Australia¡¯s giant neighbour Indonesia and his native US. ¡°We should expect the beginnings of massive AI-generated misinformation campaigns to emerge in these elections,¡± he said. ¡°To say I am worried about the US election is an understatement.

¡°[Donald Trump¡¯s] last presidency ended with the most significant threat to the transfer of power in US history. The next US election is precisely 11 months away. That gives the world a small window to make change, or we may well face our media screens being filled with riots and the US Capitol being overrun once again.¡±

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Professor Schmidt said that while universities were ¡°not flawless¡±, they pursued truth without a political agenda or paymaster. ¡°We follow the evidence and are transparent in our methods and outcomes. There has to be a space in a functioning democracy for experts to debate. Those places are called universities.¡±

He said that if he was able to make one change to how people were educated, it would be to ¡°teach people from a very, very early age about uncertainty. You cannot understand the world unless you understand the shades of grey that come along with every single piece of information.¡±

But the culture of media, politicians and society ¡°wants black and white answers¡±, he added.

Professor Schmidt said one challenge for universities was to ¡°row against the tide of reluctance to have the hardest conversations. Some topics right now ¨C let¡¯s say the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ¨C are so polarised, it is almost impossible to say anything that will not lead to some form of retribution involving harassment by the anonymously aggrieved.

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¡°Students become adept at finding the space between our codes of conduct and the freedoms of expression we encourage on our campuses,¡± he said.

¡°Most of the intolerant behaviour is concentrated in a relatively small number of individuals, and people like this have always been at universities. The challenge is that the power of digital connectivity enables the anger of a small number of people to be aggressively amplified, with a chilling effect on free debate.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com