Technology & AI

Dr Ming Ming Chiu: Why Fake News Works So Well

June 8, 2026Hosted by Eric PratumWith Dr Ming Ming Chiu

In this episode, Eric talks with researcher Dr Ming Ming Chiu about fake news, AI generated deception, creativity, and the hidden patterns inside human communication. Drawing from decades of work across education, statistics, online behavior, and computational analysis, Dr Chiu explains why misinformation spreads so effectively and why the future of trust may become one of the defining challenges of modern society.

What began as research into how children learn mathematics eventually led Dr Chiu into studying online predators, extremist recruitment, fake news networks, and deceptive communication itself. Along the way, he developed what he calls “Deceptive Writing Theory,” a framework that attempts to identify falsehoods not by checking facts directly, but by analyzing the language patterns people use when they lie.

The conversation explores why fake news works in the first place. Dr Chiu argues that deception succeeds because most people are generally honest and cooperative in daily life. Humans are wired to trust. That trust becomes exploitable when large organizations, political actors, or AI systems learn how to manipulate emotion, identity, fear, and social sharing dynamics at scale.

Eric and Dr Chiu also discuss how different cultures experience misinformation differently, why AI may dramatically increase the scale of manipulation, and what happens when societies retreat into isolated “truth bubbles.” At the same time, the conversation turns toward creativity and scientific discovery itself. Dr Chiu explains why most of his ideas fail, why failure is central to innovation, and how creativity often emerges by connecting patterns across completely unrelated fields.

At its core, this is a conversation about trust. About how humans decide what is real. And about whether societies can maintain shared reality in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms designed to manipulate attention.

Topics Covered

Why humans are naturally vulnerable to fake news
How “Deceptive Writing Theory” attempts to detect lies
The language patterns common in deceptive communication
Why fake news spreads through emotion and identity
The role of Russia, China, and large scale disinformation campaigns
Why AI could dramatically increase manipulation online
How scammers intentionally target vulnerable people
The relationship between trust and misinformation
Why different cultures respond differently to fake news
Echo chambers, polarization, and collapsing shared reality
Why most scientific ideas fail
Creativity through pattern recognition across disciplines
How Dr Chiu moved from computer science into education research
What children’s conversations revealed about human behavior
Why large tech companies may be the only groups capable of addressing fake news at scale
The tension between optimism and pessimism about humanity’s future

Go deeper: Read Eric Pratum’s essay, “Fake News Works Because Trust Usually Does”, which examines how deception exploits the unverified trust that makes ordinary commerce, institutions, and news possible, and why blanket distrust cannot preserve a shared reality.

Episode Links

Dr Ming Ming Chiu on Google Scholar: Visit scholar.google.com
Dr Chiu at The Education University of Hong Kong: Visit eduhk.hk

Key takeaways

Misinformation works partly because ordinary human cooperation depends on a default willingness to trust.
Deceptive writing can reveal linguistic patterns even when direct fact-checking is difficult.
AI can scale emotional manipulation and fragmented truth communities far faster than previous information systems.