Fake AI airline reviews take off after ChatGPT launch

Occurred: October 2024

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The advent of ChatGPT triggered an avalanche of fake and highly polarised AI-powered reviews of airlines, according to researchers.

What happened

AI detection company Originality.ai found that fake AI-generated reviews of airlines surged by 189 percent since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.ย 

The study identified that China Southern Airlines as the most affected, with over 32 percent of its reviews flagged as AI-generated.ย 

Among US carriers, Southwest Airlines has an 8.7 percent rate of AI-generated reviews while United Airlines saw a staggering 157 percent increase in such content over twelve months.

Why it happened


The release of ChatGPT and other generative AI models has made it easier for anyone to create and publish realistic-looking reviews that mimic different writing styles at the drop of a hat.


And as AI technologies become more accessible, a broader range of users can exploit these capabilities to produce fake reviews - a trend not limited to airlines; similar increases have been observed across various sectors, such as e-commerce, where fake reviews have reportedly risen by 400 percent on platforms like Amazon since ChatGPT's launch.

What it means

The trend raises significant concerns regarding the authenticity of online reviews and how customers and potential customers are able to distinguish fake from real reviews.

With customer confidence in airline services dropping by 90 percent from 2014 to 2024, it also raises questions about how airlines should respond.

User review - fake review

Advertisers, marketers, and other competitive stakeholders have motivation to produce fake positive user reviews for products they wish to promote or fake negative user reviews for products which they wish to disparage.

Source: Wikipedia ๐Ÿ”—

System ๐Ÿค–

Operator: Airline travelers
Developer: OpenAI
Country: Global
Sector: Transport/logistics
Purpose: Generate text
Technology: Chatbot; Generative AI; Machine learning
Issue: Mis/disinformation