AI-made war videos and limited satellite images are making online claims harder to check

In short: More online posts about war are being made or boosted in ways that make them hard to verify, and some key sources of proof are becoming harder to access.

What's going on

Wired reports that AI-made videos, including Lego-style propaganda clips that allege war crimes, are flooding social media feeds. One Iran-linked outlet, Explosive News, can reportedly produce a two-minute AI-made Lego segment in about 24 hours. The speed matters because the clip can spread widely before people have time to check it.

Official accounts are also adopting the same vague, teaser-like style. Wired notes that the White House posted two “launching soon” videos and then removed them after online investigators began analyzing them. The reveal was a promotion for the official White House app, but the episode added to confusion about what is real and what is manufactured.

At the same time, tools used to confirm events are under strain. Wired cites research estimating that automated traffic, often called bots (software that acts like a person online), now makes up about 51 percent of internet activity. Wired also points to a recent example where Planet Labs, a major commercial satellite company often used by journalists, said it would indefinitely withhold imagery of Iran and the broader Middle East conflict zone after a US government request.

Experts told Wired that modern AI images are also harder to spot, and that many fakes are “hybrids,” where most of a photo is real but one small detail is altered (like changing one part of a label). That can slip past basic detection tools.

What to watch

Expect more realistic AI-made and AI-edited images during fast-moving news events. Also watch whether access to independent evidence, like satellite images, becomes more limited, which can leave the public relying more on posts that are easy to share but hard to confirm.

Source: Wired