Countering AI-generated misinformation with pre-emptive source discreditation and debunking

Despite widespread concerns over AI-generated misinformation, its impact on people's reasoning and the effectiveness of countermeasures remain unclear. This study examined whether a pre-emptive, source-focused inoculation-designed to lower trust in AI-generated information-could reduce its influence on reasoning. This approach was compared with a retroactive, content-focused debunking, as well as a simple disclaimer that AI-generated information may be misleading, as often seen on real-world platforms. Additionally, the extent to which trust in AI-generated information is malleable was also tested with an intervention designed to boost trust. Across two experiments (total N = 1223), a misleading AI-generated article influenced reasoning regardless of its alleged source (human or AI). In both experiments, the inoculation reduced general trust in AI-generated information, but did not significantly reduce the misleading article's specific influence on reasoning. The additional trust-boosting and disclaimer interventions used in Experiment 1 also had no impact. By contrast, debunking of misinformation in Experiment 2 effectively reduced its impact, although only a combination of inoculation and debunking eliminated misinformation influence entirely. Findings demonstrate that generative AI can be a persuasive source of misinformation, potentially requiring multiple countermeasures to negate its effects.