Artificial Intelligence and the Fight againstMisinformation: Analyzing the Role of Digital Media in Shaping Public Perceptions in Pakistan

The study investigates the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI and deepfakeon the creation and proliferation of misinformation in Pakistan and the role of digital media ecosystems in cementing perceptions. The paper employs qualitative content analysis of 300 items (news articles, social-media posts, fact-checks, and civil-society reports) in the year 20232025 to identify priority areas of AI-enabled misinformation flows, platform affordances that can fuel misinformed content, and the ability of local fact-checkers and civil-society actors and limited populace awareness of fake-content detectors. The results reveal an active disinformation economy with political motives, platform architecture, and poor digital literacy exacerbating the ills of AI-facilitated misinformation. What the paper recommends by way of policy is to address the issue of platform accountability, capacity building of the fact-checkers, and media literacy interventions that are context-sensitive to the Pakistani socio-political environment.