Most conversations about AI focus on convenience, like how it drafts emails or speeds up everyday tasks, but the real story runs deeper. As Philip Mai shared at the Pathways to Prosperity Conference in Halifax, the same tools that boost productivity are now shaping how Canadians encounter information about migration. With AI-generated images, videos, and posts becoming effortless to create and tougher to spot, the space between fact and fiction is widening.
This talk, Fractured Facts, digs into the Lab’s latest findings on social media habits, AI adoption, and the growing influence of generative systems in spreading anti-immigrant misinformation and why that shift should concern all of us. The Pathways to Prosperity (P2P) Partnership is a national network that supports evidence-based policies and programs for immigrant settlement and integration in Canada. Its members include federal and provincial migration ministries, municipalities, newcomer-serving organizations, and researchers from across the country.
From there, the talk moved through real examples from Canada, Germany, and the UK to show how AI-generated content is already shaping public attitudes. It highlighted deepfakes crafted to stoke anger at refugees, fake crime photos pushed out within hours of breaking news, and meme campaigns linked to far-right networks. These stories don’t just distort public debate. They affect the safety and well-being of immigrants, and they put extra pressure on the organizations that serve them by undermining trust and fueling fear.
Mai wrapped up by offering steps communities and frontline workers can use to blunt that impact. He walked through simple ways to spot manipulated media, check alarming claims, and guide clients through the risks they face online. He also previewed the Lab’s upcoming Migration Ads Observatory, a dashboard that tracks migration-related ads across Meta’s platforms to reveal emerging trends and narrative patterns. The aim is to give policymakers, researchers, and service providers the tools they need to understand how AI-driven misinformation spreads and shapes public attitudes toward immigration.
To learn more about this presentation, here’s the link to the presentation.