Charlie Kirk assassination sparks false AI ‘fact-checks’ and online chaos

With a fire hose of misinformation surrounding the assassination of U.S. right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, social media users have turned to AI chatbots for reliable updates, only to encounter contradictory or inaccurate responses, further fuelling online confusion.

The trend highlights how chatbots often generate confident responses, even when verified information is unavailable during fast-developing news events, energising misinformation across platforms that have largely scaled back human fact-checking and content moderation.