Disinformation

The ability of GenAI to create realistic and plausible text, video, audio and code makes the creation of false, biased, or politically motivated media faster and easier to produce. An example of these are so-called ‘deepfakes’. A deepfake is an image or audio/video recording that has been manipulated to depict someone doing or saying something they never actually did or said. The two AI-generated photos below, for example, are two realistic yet fake depictions of Pope Francis riding a white motorcycle and wearing a white puffer jacket, respectively.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/technology/ai-photos-pope-francis.html

 

Deepfakes can be used to spread disinformation and to promote hate speech or politically biased content. Always try to verify the authenticity of images or recordings by tracing them back to their original source. One way of doing this is by conducting a so-called ‘reverse image search’. Web browsers such as Google offer this option. Also, be aware that any images you share on the internet may be incorporated into GenAI training data and might be manipulated and used in unethical ways.