AI-generated videos are filling social media feeds, and they are looking increasingly real, even if logic suggests otherwise.
Take this video, for example, which is currently doing the rounds on Instagram. It appears to show a team of fishermen out at sea hauling a mammoth oyster onto their boat. They proceed to crack the shell open, finding a glistening football-sized pearl inside.
The video – and others like it – is appearing frequently on Instagram feeds across Maltese social media.
More stills from the AI-generated video.
Note the unnaturalness of the light and distorted hand in the still on the right.
How can you tell the video is AI-generated?
- It has a cartoonish quality (e.g. blurry and distorted edges, surfaces and skin that resemble wax)
- Hands and faces look unnatural
- Movements appear unnatural
- Voices sound mechanical or robotic (and lack the excitement or surprise you might expect to hear in the event of one catching a mammoth oyster)
- Reflections do not look natural
- The account that originally posted the image only seems to post AI-generated content
Context matters – and here we are referring to the platform. The video was posted on Instagram, which has a ‘Reels’ section that works similarly to TikTok: an endless stream of short-form videos that users can swipe through. Reels are dependent on the algorithm, and with enough engagement, AI-generated videos can easily make their way into users’ feeds. Apart from this, short-form videos are highly shareable.
This kind of AI-generated content is often shared by other users out of amusement rather than because they believe it to be real (which is how we came across it). But in sharing it, users are still increasing the spread of false content, therefore increasing the number of people who are exposed to it and who may fall for it.
While AI-generated content concerning more pressing subjects – think deep fake videos of political leaders – is more problematic, the giant pearl video is a reminder about the increasing deceptiveness of AI-generated imagery, its virality, and the impact it can have on public perception.
Fact Check, Society, Technology
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Originally published here.
