AI in the Wild
AI-generated content — deepfakes, synthetic voices, generated images — is now widespread and increasingly indistinguishable from real content. Knowing how to identify it protects you and others.
What Is Real Online
The ability to generate convincing fake images, videos, audio, and text at scale has arrived. This changes what it means to see something online. A video of someone saying something, a photo of an event, a voice message from a contact — none of these can be taken at face value without verification.
Types of AI-Generated Content You Will Encounter
How to Spot AI-Generated Content
- Unnatural eye movement or blinking patterns in video
- Hair and background edges that do not move naturally
- Inconsistent lighting between face and background
- Audio that does not perfectly sync with mouth movement
- Text that is fluent but oddly generic or lacks specific details
- Images where hands have wrong numbers of fingers or text is garbled
Legal context: Creating and distributing deepfake intimate images without consent is criminal under NC law and increasingly under federal law. AI-generated intimate images of real people — even if the person never posed for the image — are treated the same as real images under NC law.