The Deepfake Election: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Reality
In todays world of digital news seeing something does not mean it is true. If you scroll through your social media feed you might see a realistic picture of Donald Trump running from authorities and then you see a picture of the Vaticans leader wearing fancy street clothes.
As we try to understand this world of politics artificial intelligence is making it harder to know what is real and what is not. Lets look at the artificial intelligence trends on the internet from making politicians look like gods to strange global meetings and what they mean for the future of news.
Making Politicians Look Like Gods: The "Donald Trump as Jesus" Trend
One of the interesting trends on social media is combining politics and religious symbols. If you saw a post about Donald Trump with very dramatic lighting it was probably made using artificial intelligence.
People who support Donald Trump and artists have made millions of pictures but the search for a picture of Donald Trump as Jesus has increased a lot. These pictures show Donald Trump in a good light using religious symbols to make a point about politics. Whether you think a picture of Donald Trump as Jesuss art or propaganda it is clear that it gets a lot of attention on the internet.
This kind of picture about Donald Trump uses intelligence to affect peoples emotions showing that artificial intelligence is not just for making funny pictures. It is a powerful tool for shaping what people think about politics.
The Vaticans Leader Goes Viral: When the Pope Meets Politics
Donald Trump is not the famous person who has been affected by artificial intelligence image makers. The Pope has been in some of the realistic deepfakes in internet history.
It started with a picture of the Pope wearing a stylish white jacket.. Then the internet made it even more interesting by combining the Pope with politics. Now people are searching for pictures of Donald Trump and the Pope together.
People have made realistic pictures of the two leaders in fake situations. When you see a picture of Donald Trump and the Pope trending it is usually a made-up meeting, an argument or even a funny role-reversal like the Pope as Donald Trump.
Because the Pope and Donald Trump have different styles. The Popes robes and Donald Trumps blue suit and red tie. Artificial intelligence image makers are very good at combining them.
How to Tell if a Picture is Fake Before You Share It
For a news website like toptrendz and for our readers it is very important to be able to tell what is real. What is not. The time you see a shocking picture of Donald Trump or a controversial political picture look for these signs before sharing it:
Look at the Hands: Artificial intelligence still has trouble making hands look real. If you see fingers, strange knuckles or hands that are blended into clothes it is probably a fake picture.
Check the Background: If there are signs, documents or billboards in the background zoom in. Artificial intelligence usually makes up nonsense that looks like letters from another language.
Look at the Lighting: Does the skin look too perfect? Is there a shiny look on the faces? Real news pictures usually have a natural look.
The Bottom Line
As artificial intelligence technology gets cheaper and easier to use there will be more fake pictures and videos. Whether it is a picture meant to inspire or a deepfake meant to trick people it is up, to us to make sure what we are looking at is real.