The real threat of AI is the collapse of trust
Why journalism needs to prove which images are authentic — not just label deepfakes
A lie travels the world on social media before a community note can lace up its shoes.
Last week, the White House shared an image of a protester arrested in Minneapolis. It had been digitally altered to add tears and darken her skin. Several news outlets debunked the image, some citing the use of artificial intelligence detection tools.
But the damage was done. Millions had already seen it on X.
AI has unleashed a torrent of photorealistic images and videos in our news feeds. As generative tools proliferate, cheap and convincing fakes will appear in more critical contexts — fast, frequent and often untraceable.
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
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