AI, particularly generative AI, has been on the rise in recent years. Alongside its benefits, it also brings “threats,” especially in the creation and dissemination of fake news.

Hoang Huong, founder of startup Unikon, said that AI affects both the production and dissemination of information. Generative AI can easily and quickly create fake content. Previously, producing a photo, video, or article required significant resources, but now with just a few operations using AI tools, any individual or organization can mass-produce high-quality content.

In particular, deepfake technology allows the recreation of faces and voices that are nearly indistinguishable from reality, making it difficult for users to differentiate between real and fake. 

Even content production companies and users are leveraging AI to accelerate content creation, inadvertently creating an environment where fake news can easily infiltrate and multiply at a terrifying pace.

Social media has become an ideal environment for fake news. With the FOMO (fear of missing out) mindset and the need for communications, users readily share trending content. Such content, often created using deepfake images or videos, spreads instantly due to interaction-priority algorithm. Meanwhile, authentic news requires time for verification and validation. As a result, by the time real news is published, public opinion has already been swayed by fake news, eroding societal trust.

Moreover, AI automates the dissemination process. Bot systems can simultaneously create and share thousands of posts and comments, making fake news appear as “trending.” This heightens the risk of manipulating public opinion more than ever before.

Vo Quoc Hung from Tonkin Media noted that AI advancements allows faster creation of fake news, and the fake images are far more accurate than before. In the past, fake news spread via fake accounts created manually or with limited technology, so dissemination was still slow. But with AI, it is easier to manage large numbers of fake or cloned accounts on a large scale, so automated spread of fake news is much simpler. 

AI also enables automatic tailoring of fake content to personal preferences or specific audience groups, increasing engagement and spread among users. 

According to Gartner, one AI-produced fake news item can be created in under five minutes, whereas doing it manually used to take nearly 50–60 minutes. Statistics from Statista also show that AI-generated fake news accounted for 30 percent in 2025 so far, compared with under 10 percent in previous years.

Nguyen Huu Son, co‑founder of Lovinbot, added that AI is developing both in breadth and depth, so AI‑generated content is becoming more sophisticated. 

Although producing fake content is now easy, AI itself does not automatically disseminate it. More concerning are automation tools, such as the open-source, free platform N8N or other automated software, which accelerate dissemination on social media. 

These tools can automatically monitor posts, comment, and insert malicious links, leading to an increasing volume and sophistication of fake news.

Hoang Long, a technology expert, warned that with AI and automation tools, combined with “phonefarms” in Vietnam that can generate tens to hundreds of millions of automated social media accounts, creating and spreading fake news has become as simple as a single click.

Discussing the solutions to prevent the spread of fake news, Long noted that AI is merely a tool and does not generate or spread information on its own without human intervention. 

The most critical solution remains controlling and strictly penalizing those who exploit AI to spread fake news. Whether AI is used for positive or negative purposes hinges on human actions. At the same time, social media platforms must also take responsibility for allowing bots and fake accounts to operate, as these are the primary channels for dissemination.

There needs to be strict handling not only of those who create fake news but also of those who facilitate its spread. A piece of false information, if left untouched, is harmless, but when widely disseminated, it becomes a spark that causes panic and societal division. Thus, it is time to consider the act of irresponsibly sharing fake news as a violation that warrants corresponding penalties to ensure sufficient deterrence, he said.

Thai Khang