DoubleVerify study highlights low confidence in identifying AI content, as the company also issues a new warning on “FanFarming” targeting UK sports fans with AI slop
DoubleVerify (NYSE: DV), the leading software platform to verify media quality, optimize ad performance and prove campaign outcomes, today released new research, conducted in partnership with YouGov, examining how consumers perceive AI-generated content and its impact on trust online. The findings reveal a growing gap between awareness and detection: while consumers recognise the risks of AI-generated content, many struggle to identify it.
According to the study, which surveyed 2,000 UK consumers, 92% of respondents said the rise of AI-generated content is making it harder to trust information online. At the same time, 81% expressed concern about encountering fake or misleading AI content designed to appear genuine. Despite this heightened awareness, only 41% of respondents said they feel confident in their ability to identify AI-generated content—revealing a 40-point gap between concern and detection.
The data points to a widening “trust gap” across the digital ecosystem, where the scale and sophistication of AI-generated content is outpacing consumers’ ability to assess its authenticity.
“As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, the challenge now shifts to identifying it,” said Stuart Flint, DoubleVerify’s Managing Director, EMEA. “Consumers are increasingly sceptical, but they don’t feel equipped to distinguish between authentic and synthetic content. That creates a meaningful vulnerability across the open web and social platforms.”
The gap between concern and detection creates an opening for bad actors to distribute misleading content at scale, often by blending into trusted environments where audiences are less likely to question what they see.
As an example, and as part of its ongoing research, DV is today releasing a new threat alert identifying a network of AI-generated sports websites targeting UK football fans. The network, consisting of more than 40 UK-based domains, mass-produces sports content using AI—including fabricated quotes attributed to real athletes—and distributes it through large online fan communities across leading platforms.
DV refers to this broader distribution tactic as “FanFarming,” where AI-generated content is seeded into trusted fan environments to drive engagement and monetise traffic through advertising. Based on DV estimates, including fan page distribution, the network of sites discovered has already reached hundreds of thousands of UK sports fans.
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