> It's also no different to endless prank calls via phone, not a new thing.

Of course it's different. If I do 5 prank calls, that takes, say, 15 minutes.

In 15 minutes how many hoaxes can I generate with AI? Hundreds, maybe thousands?

This is like saying nukes are basically swords because they both kill people. We've always been able to kill people, who cares about nuclear weapons?