Internet is rife with fake reviews; will AI make it worse?

FILE - Online customer reviews for a product are displayed on a computer on April 17, 2019, in New York. AI-infused text generation tools enable fraudsters to produce reviews faster and in greater volume, tech industry experts say. FILE - An Amazon.com package awaits delivery from UPS in Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 18, 2010. Phony reviews have long plagued many popular consumer websites, such as Amazon and Yelp.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put merchants, service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say.