(WXYZ) — For many of us, news and information are available at our fingertips, but so is AI-generated content.
Photos, videos, and even voice recordings. Wayne County Sheriff's Office Digital Forensics Expert Britton Foreman said right now, we're seeing more of the negative impacts of AI technology.
Related: This week National News Literacy Week, presented by The News Literacy Project, The E.W. Scripps Company, and USA Today, focuses on providing educators with the tools and resources they need to help students more skillfully navigate today’s information landscape. More about this effort and tools here: NewsLiteracyWeek.org
“School bullying right, that’s a big one. Revenge porn, that’s another big one where you see a lot of these revenge porn cases where these people they’ll go in there, they’ll doctor something that didn’t actually happen, put it out there and it looks real, but it’s not," Foreman said.
Although it can be difficult, Foreman said there are some ways you can spot AI-generated images and videos that are made to spread false information, better known as deep fakes.
In one video he showed me, you can see the skin is too perfect. Foreman also said looking closely at fingers, faces and backgrounds for anything unnatural may help you spot content that isn't real.
But whether it's for good or for bad, there's no denying that AI is going to become more prevalent in our lives, especially for teens.
“It’s endless possibilities of what this could do for our society," Foreman said.
“I’m seeing them so often it’s getting hard to tell what’s AI and what’s not anymore," 10th grader Ariana Rogers said.
Ariana is part of Mr. Cooper Franks' honors English class at Farmington High School. She and other students say they're seeing AI everywhere, whether they like it or not.
“The amount of times I’ve seen AI-generated pictures where there’s three different types of hair types on the same head, or limbs that are out of place, or positions or postures that shouldn’t be possible, it’s kind of unnerving when you see it for the first time," Ariana said.
The majority of students I spoke with are interested in getting ahead of the technology as it continues to make its way into media.
Karthik Velvadapu even sent a letter to his school's superintendent about integrating AI into the classroom more.
“It’s such a powerful tool. I feel like there are a lot more companies involved with it and I feel like a lot of people are using it more," Karthik said. "I know a lot of people use it in their school work and stuff so, it’s definitely becoming more prevalent.”
Their teacher, Mr. Franks, acknowledges this.
“It is a tool. I mean, we thought the same thing with the internet. People were saying that you can’t have it, it’s going to cause you to be ignorant, it’s going to cause you not to know," Franks said.
He believes it's all about teaching teens to have a critical eye.
“So teaching them how to cite their sources, even if it is AI, you can cite AI, but then you get to a longer conversation about is that a reliable source because a lot of times it’s not, and so, having those conversations about not just black and white but the gray areas, is what matters," Franks said.
Foreman said one of the best things we can do to protect ourselves from misinformation is to slow down. But for teens, he suggests this.
“Get off social media, go out, have physical contact with your friends, actually go outside and play," Foreman said. "You know, to me, that’s the biggest thing. We have to disconnect, we have to unplug from social media, we have to unplug from the internet and actually start having actual human interaction and meaningful interactions with our friends and our loved ones.”
