“Oh, and for good measure the tooling for spreading automatically generated misinformation is getting more efficient, too:”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
Tools for spreading automatically generated misinformation are becoming more efficient.
Assessment: Supported Evidence as of
Where and when Gary Marcus wrote it
Marcus on AI, Two frightening things before breakfast, paragraph 30.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment marcus-two-frightening-things-before-breakfast-edd8da-a2
We recorded 8 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-29. The source may have been edited after 2023-02-16. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
From the speaker
- tooling for spreading automatically generated misinformation
- getting more efficient
- Uncanny Automator
- has just introduced the integration with OpenAI
Our interpretation
- The ordinary reading is that new integrations reduced the manual work needed to generate and distribute text that could include misinformation.
- Efficiency means fewer manual handoffs and less setup effort, not a measured increase in persuasion, audience reach, or falsehood production.
- The context identifies a recent February 2023 publishing integration. The target covers February through the post date.
- This assesses the capability of general-purpose publishing tools, without assuming they were designed for misinformation.
Counts as supported if: Contemporaneous release documentation shows newly integrated text generation and publishing or messaging workflows that remove manual steps.
Counts as contradicted if: The cited integration was unavailable by the post date, did not connect generation to distribution, or required the same manual handoffs as before.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Supported
The dated evidence matches what the claim committed to, under the criteria frozen before grading.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
Uncanny Automator's February 14, 2023 release announcement describes a new OpenAI integration that passes generated text directly into subsequent actions, including messaging and publishing workflows [e1]. The vendor reports a working WhatsApp chatbot that automatically received messages, generated replies and sent them back [e1]. This supports reduced manual handoffs between generation and distribution within the February 1–16 assessment period, with potential application to misinformation inferred from the general-purpose capability [e1].
Limitations
- The evidence is a vendor announcement, without a controlled before-and-after efficiency measurement.
- It does not show actual misinformation use, increased misinformation output, audience reach or persuasive impact.
- The assessment interprets efficiency as reduced manual work.
Evidence (1 item)
Supports the claim: Uncanny Owl / Uncanny Automator,
2 minutes
Why it matters here: The announcement describes a new integration passing generated responses directly into subsequent actions, including a WhatsApp round trip and conversion of form prompts into posts. This supports reduced manual work; applicability to misinformation is an inference about the same publishing capability.
- Publisher
- Uncanny Owl / Uncanny Automator
- Kind of source
- Company disclosure: the company describing itself, not an independent finding
- Describes events of
- Public from
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Marcus on AI, Two frightening things before breakfast
Oh, and for good measure the tooling for spreading automatically generated misinformation is getting more efficient, too:
- Where
- paragraph 30
- Published
- 2023-02-16
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment marcus-two-frightening-things-before-breakfast-edd8da-a2: Current. Outcome: Supported. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
About assessment marcus-two-frightening-things-before-breakfast-edd8da-a2.