Army of Liars: How Digital Media and Artificial Intelligence Are Corrupting and Endangering Humanity

Following up his groundbreaking book Digital is Destroying Everything, Andrew Edwards nowunveils the sinister agenda of An Army of Liars, thedigitally-driven bad actors seeking to destabilize the United States by eroding the very foundations of liberal democracy with a relentless barrage of fabricated narratives and poisonous, digitally promoted misinformation.

Pulling no punches, Edwards identifies the culprits: social media platforms protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, audience targeting, real-time content recommendation, foreign state actors, and radical factions fueled by hate. Today’s social media has been weaponized by enemies of the United States and hate and discord are now the currency of thousands of anonymous “content providers.”

Army of Liars unpacks how we got here, exactly is wrong with digital enterprise, and how to go about fixing it so that humanity may survive even in an age of artificial intelligence and digital command and control. Should we implement an “engagement tax” on social media platforms and generative AI? These funds could be used to help fight off the worst types of disinformation and to help fund the efforts of content creators whose work has been scraped, stolen, and reconfigured by generative AI and large language models (LLMs).

It’s a safe bet the tech giants won’t want to hear it. Army of Liars is designed to help humans not only survive in a digital age, but to conquer digital and prosper in an age of truth in media.

Andrew V. Edwards is an author, technologist, entrepreneur, perennial iconoclast, and visual artist residing in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the author of Digital is Destroying Everything and dozens of articles about digital marketing for ClickZ, the world’s largest online source of marketing advice and information. He has also published fiction and had a play produced in New York’s East Village. His prizewinning paintings have been exhibited nationally. He is a Co-founder and Director Emeritus of the Digital Analytics Association. In the 1990s Andrew designed and built some of the very first websites, and ran Renaissance Multimedia, one of the first interactive agencies in New York City. He went on to found Technology Leaders, one of the first consulting companies devoted to digital audience measurement, with clients that included The Coca-Cola Company, Century 21, and Priceline.

Discerning truth from deception and fact from misinformation was once much easier. We learned the patterns, like the telltales of scam emails, robo calls, and grainy manipulated photos. Those were the times of the past and the AI-powered digital era has changed the battlefield against misinformation. Andrew V. Edwards' new book Army of Liars provides a provocative view that will make you rethink what you read the next time you scroll on social media. He takes readers through a journey of the decline of traditional media and the rise of social media that not only change the rules of responsible journalism but will have you question everything else, and show you a few tools to be better informed along the way. In a time of information overload, this is a must-read.

Army of Liars explores how our consumption of information has reshaped our society's understanding of truth. Through a critical lens, Andrew Edwards expertly examines the intricate balance between our right to free speech and the harms of disinformation, in a world where artificial intelligence enables accelerated manipulation and exploitation of the information environment around us. The risk is high: our democracy is at stake. Through rigorous analysis and contemporary examples, Edwards illustrates the capabilities that digital platforms have to distort our understanding of reality and how that can impact our nation's politics, public health, and societal norms. What makes Army of Liars an essential read is not just its diagnosis of the problem, but its bold call to action. Edwards urges us to collectively stand up and demand accountability from the digital publishers and tech giants that are shaping our world. This book is a clarion call for accountability, critical thinking, and the ethical use of technology--much needed for us to bolster the foundations of truth in our society.

Andrew Edwards, deep background in data, put him in a unique position to identify why misinformation is a major concern. We all need to increase our critical thinking skills.

Of course, the dilemma is: If AI generates a proliferation of disinformation, propaganda, fakes, forgery, and counterfeits - how do we know what's true and what's not in this book? Fortunately, author Andrew Edwards has previously predicted that AI would emanate these exact problems, along with the many benefits that it also brings. The good news is - it's not all bad news. But you need to be ready for both. Army of Liars does an excellent job of preparing you for where we are and what's still to come in the rapidly emerging field of Artificial Intelligence.