Storyline: Deepfakes and deep mistrust

I'm thinking about a storyline that has come up multiple times this summer: How the mere existence of AI sows distrust.

If I were pitching a news story or crafting a PR pitch relating to AI, I'd think about how to tie it into this unfolding broader storyline. Call it "deepfakes and deep mistrust."

This is not just about people distrusting AI – that's already well established. This is about how the very existence of AI-generated images and text is casting doubt on previously reliable sources of evidence.

This theme has come up in a variety of ways.

For example, Google's new Pixel 9 phone has such outstanding AI-powered image editing that it can add tanks to scenes where they didn't appear – or remove them from scenes where they did – and the output is indistinguishable from a real photo.

The people in charge of elections across the US (secretaries of state) have complained that AI is undermining their credibility by enabling election hackers to impersonate them and also casting doubt on their legitimate communications.

Oh yes, and there's that bogus claim about crowd sizes.

It's a troubling development in a world where misinformation is rampant and trust in the media is at a record-matching low.

I don't know the solution, but I hope someone's working on it. As the Verge wrote: No one's ready for this.

Some reference points: