Access to what’s going on on the other side of the world is a click away. But mistakenly coming across the wrong information is also just a click away. With technology innovating fast, it has made things like AI help us research things more quickly, making it feel as if we have every bit of information available at our fingertips. But being too careless while researching, especially with AI, may lead to wrong information.

The boom of the internet has created so much information to be easily accessible. But that’s created a problem. Too many sources of information causes information overload, and having to sort through so many sources is too time consuming and stressful. In a time where we have a lot of information available, it feels as if we are too uniformed. A social media boom led to a rise in independent journalism, holding higher institutions accountable, but making the pile of information even higher and allowing inexperienced journalists to spread misinformation easier. Even when relying on only institutional sources, there’s still quite a few to sort through, with hundreds of colleges and universities and multiple news stations. One would have to select only a few sources of information to save time, which means researching which sources are trustworthy, something difficult to do when you don’t know how to research.

Recently it feels like every news company has been at least called “fake news”. Politifact, a fact checking website, labeled 2025 the “Year of The Lies”, commenting on how much misinformation has been spread by politicians, news stations and AI. Hearing all the claims, including claims made by politicians, that certain news sources are false, makes it all the more stressful to figure out who to rely on to stay informed. It would be a lengthy process to fact check multiple sources without knowing the background about them before. But even if you narrowed down a few sources by researching them, the rate at which significant events are occurring with AI, a politically changing time and world tension would still take a lot of time and energy, which makes the idea of quick careless research more tempting. 

People may see thorough researching and using more than one source of information as too time and energy costly for their lives. Even worse is relying only on short form content that leaves out certain details and proof. Others may rely on AI, risking even worse misinformation. And for those who don’t go to AI for research, AI misinformation may come to them. As AI advances, knowing fact from fiction is getting increasingly difficult. A quarter of participants from a study by KelloggInsight were unable to identify real videos from AI. The use of AI videos by politicians is creating more distrust in those politicians and the information people hear.

Without regulations on false information, people will be unable to stay properly informed, making false information and distrust spread even more. Information is already hard to sort through, and making it harder with AI could have unimaginable consequences. Tough laws against deceiving use of AI content and/or slowing down the advancement of AI need to be implemented to help us not be so lost in a chaotic world.