Janet E Silver is a World Press Freedom Canada board member.

The news and information environment is undergoing a fundamental shift with the rise of AI, social media and new players, including content creators. Mis- and disinformation campaigns target marginalized and vulnerable communities, creating fear and uncertainty about who to trust and what is real. This disruption is effecting education, employment, trust in our institutions, press freedom and democracy itself. 

Elizabeth Dubois, a University of Ottawa professor who studies politics and technology, says politicians are reshaping the information landscape by giving influencers interviews and access once reserved for journalists.

MIT economist and Nobel Prize laureate Daron Acemoglu warns that we all pay the price when people rely on social media and AI for information.

“Social media has been terrible for mental health, for democratic discourse, for people’s priorities, for people’s social networks, friendships. AI could be much worse. So, we are in the middle of a double whammy from AI, both in terms of what it does to jobs and inequality and what it does to the way that we participate in the democratic process.”

The information ecosystem is the focus of a CPAC-TV documentary series.

 There are eight episodes:

• Disinformation and Canada’s Diaspora Communities; 
• The Rise of Influencers and the New Royalty;
•  Indigenous Communities in the Age of AI and Disinformation; 
• AI and the Newsroom: Threats and Opportunities; 
• AI and Education: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; 
• AI and the Workforce: Will Robots Take Our Jobs?; 
• AI and Politics: Democracy and Manipulation; 
• Canada’s Digital Sovereignty: Protecting our Democracy. 

Business leaders, Indigenous and diaspora representatives, politicians, content creators and influencers, academics and experts in the AI and information environment contribute to the series. 

As AI and social media test press freedom, the series examines the challenges and explores potential solutions.