TAMPA — With the advent of artificial intelligence creating media and the quality of AI-created material getting better by the day, being able to spot fake material is becoming a key trait for anyone online.
“A few years ago, if we were having this discussion, I would try to give you all sort of little hints like look for how many fingers somebody has or look at the wrinkles in the clothing, and things often wouldn’t quite match up,” said Steve Grobman: Chief Technology Officer of McAfee.
That’s no longer the case as AI continues to improve, meaning if you’re not careful, you could fall for something that’s fake, whether it’s what you’re reading or what you’re seeing.
“It’s extremely important that consumers are on guard for what they see, especially on social media where the content isn’t vetted,” said Grobman.
He’s seen an influx of fake content online in recent weeks due to the California wildfires, even some posts that had a lot of engagement.
“McAfee used some of our advanced, deep fake detection technology to analyze some of the social media posts and identified that they were completely fake, they were made with AI,” said Grobman.
“We saw one post with well over a million views, 10s of thousands of interactions— completely fake,” he added.
Cybercriminals are also using AI. They’ve been using the devastation in California to create fake images to take advantage of people. Some cybercriminals have created fake accounts impersonating celebrities to steal money from people.
“We’ve seen imposter accounts set up for the likes of Emma Watson, and Kim Kardashian. In some cases, they’re putting bitcoin addresses in the posts and saying please, please donate to a really important cause,” said Grobman.
He believes the distribution of fake information will become even more widespread on social media now that Meta has announced it’s ending its third-party fact-checking program and moving to a community notes model.
“We’ve had some changes to policy on social media platforms over the last couple of weeks that are going to make this even more challenging for consumers,’" said Grobman.
So, how do you know if what you’re seeing online is real? Here are some tips.
- Always be skeptical.
- Check the source and verify it. Ask yourself, who is sharing the information? Is the source reputable?
- Make sure to check the date of the post.
- When it comes to pictures or screenshots of videos, you can reverse image Google search them to see if they’re real.
- Cross-check the information you’re seeing with a trusted news outlet. Make sure you can find the information in other places.
“There’s so much disinformation that you really need to go to a news source that is in the business of checking the facts and making sure that it’s real,” said Grobman.
He stresses that just because you come across a post that has a lot of likes and shares doesn’t mean it’s real.
"Why are you not giving us our money back? You owe it to us — just pay us.”
After waiting over eight months for a refund from a medical clinic, an ABC Action News viewer reached out to consumer investigative reporter Susan El-Khoury for help.
