According to a recent British study, artificial intelligence-generated fake news that circulates on social media is increasing the likelihood of bank runs. As a result, lenders need to enhance their monitoring to identify instances in which disinformation is influencing consumer behavior.
According to a study by the UK research firm Say No to Disinfo and communications firm Fenimore Harper, generative AI can be used to produce fake news stories that claim that consumer money is not safe or memes that seem to make light of security concerns. These can then be shared on social media through sponsored advertisements.
Since Silicon Valley Bank failed in 2023, when depositors took out $42 billion in a single day, banks and regulators are growing more worried about the dangers of social media-fueled bank runs.
These threats have increased due to advancements in AI. Generative AI “could enable malicious actors to generate and spread disinformation that causes acute crises,” such as flash crashes and bank runs, the G20’s Financial Stability Board warned in November.
Say No to Disinfo discovered that 33% of UK bank customers were “extremely likely” to relocate their money after viewing sample AI-generated content, and 27% were “somewhat likely” to do so.
“As AI is making disinformation campaigns easier, cheaper, quicker, and more effective than ever before, the emerging risk to the financial sector is rapidly growing but often overlooked,” the paper stated, pointing out that consumers may transfer money in a matter of seconds thanks to internet and mobile banking.
