The Real Iranian Women Protesters Trump Made Look Synthetic
Real Iranian women protesters are being held in Iranian prisons under threat of capital punishment. Their cases are now harder to defend than they were a week ago because the credibility of the documentation that human rights work depends on is being eroded by people who claim to be defending them. AI tools are being used to enhance real photographs until they look manufactured, and entirely AI-generated images are being presented as if they were of real people, often side by side as if they are the same thing. The distinction between the two is being lost, and the real women in real prisons disappear into the noise.
The eight women whose photographs President Donald Trump amplified on Truth Social this week are the latest example.
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors
Related Knowledge Center: Artificial intelligence
On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
State of the business model | Copyright and intellectual property