How to spot AI deepfakes ahead of Election Days
SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- With the general election six days from today, officials are warning about the role AI is playing in creating misleading online content, as more deepfake videos and AI-generated images are surfacing more online.
"As AI continues to grow and its capability and complexity, we have to recognize it will be impossible to discern which it was created from," Notre Dame Center for Research Computing Director Paul Brenner said.
"Was it an original image, an original video or is this created by AI? As a society, we're going to have to think differently about the content we see on social media and about the content we see online. It's going to be very important that we involve who did the content come from and a level of trust we have in those individuals."
He says it's important to recognize our own biases. By acknowledging them, he says, we become more critical viewers, making it harder to be misled by false information.
Brenner advises to use caution about what you see on social media and to understand the difference between freedom of speech and responsibility in sharing accurate information.
"We need to be cautious. We all need to be hesitant we've seen on the media, anything specifically we've seen on social media or forwarded in those particular networks. It's important to understand there's an importance that we allow freedom of speech," Brenner said.
Some ways to spot AI in false images is to look for airbrushing or smudging, as Brenner notes AI is still not the best when it comes to editing pictures.
Another way to find out if the image is real is to reverse search online. By posting the image to the google search bar, the results can help verify the source of the image.
Above all though, Brenner believes the best step of action is to take a step back from social media and have those talks with your friends and neighbors instead.
"We need to share information and think about how we communicate with each other outside, maybe a stranger or someone we don't know and consuming that content on social media. We need to go back to our communities and step off social media and talk to our neighbors again because some of these echoed chambers and social media are driving us apart. It's best to set the social media down and remember we need to talk to our neighbors, talk to our community and not let the bias of these echoed chambers drive us apart," Brenner said.