Artificial intelligence is spreading like wildfire across social media platforms. As a result, adolescent users are unable to discern between real content and AI-produced material. As social media marketer Jeremy Carrasco recently pointed out, AI-generated videos have flooded social media. He feels detection and prevention is the key in protecting yourself from deceptive video footage and news. This issue has gained traction following OpenAI’s recent release of Sora, an AI video generator designed to create viral videos. Sora has drawn sharp rebuke for letting users manipulate the likenesses of long-deceased people. This practice poses deep injustice and ethical issues in today’s digital world.
The Rise of AI-Generated Content
It’s one of the first examples of how AI-generated videos have flooded the social media landscape in recent months. Carrasco runs the TikTok account @basti.oss, which is dedicated to teaching users how to spot AI-generated video content. What many don’t know is how frequently these creations appear in their feeds, according to him. “If you feel like you haven’t seen an AI video today, you probably don’t have good AI vibes. You don’t even have a proper vibe checker,” he says.
To evaluate the effects of AI-generated content, Carrasco ran an experiment. Four high school students watched each of 21 short videos, 10 of which were real, 11 produced by artificial intelligence. The students matched the videos to their correct descriptions 67 percent of the time. This finding speaks to the difficulties of young users, despite the media- and tech-fueled narrative that they are digital natives. Most impressively, Gio, a 16-year-old participant, knocked it out of the park, scoring 86 percent accuracy rate.
“I think AI in general has taken over every single app I use, like social media apps, like Instagram,” Gio remarked, reflecting the pervasive nature of AI technology across various platforms.
Ethical Concerns Surrounding AI Technologies
OpenAI’s recent release of Sora has sparked even more controversy. From what we understand, many people are just worried about its features that allow users to recreate the likenesses of deceased performers. Even videos of icons—such as Michael Jackson—have seen viral success. In doing so, they raise ethical questions about consent and respect for the deceased. Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, publicly expressed her distress over AI-generated videos of her father circulating online. “Please stop sending me videos of my dad,” she urged her followers, highlighting the emotional toll these creations can take on families.
Carrasco calls out these companies for their failure to be held accountable for the social harms that these technologies can and have caused. “They are not at all concerned and pass off responsibility on the social harms,” he comments. He thinks that creators have adopted this trend as a fait accompli and long ago stopped caring about its negative impact on society. “They feel like this is inevitable, therefore they’re actually doing us a favour by letting us all talk about it and deal with it,” Carrasco added.
Navigating the Digital Landscape
The difficulty in distinguishing between real and AI-generated content prompts discussions about necessary skills for navigating the digital landscape. Sasha, one of the students involved in Carrasco’s experiment, expressed her frustration with identifying authentic content: “It’s really hard to try and work out what’s real and what’s fake.” Though she tried her best, she confessed that she didn’t have confidence she could tell what was real versus what was fake.
Carrasco wants educators, students, and everyone, really, to approach video with a critical mindset. His greater message to viewers is to always be mindful of the context and details of what you’re consuming before jumping to conclusions. “The other thing is that you still need to look at the background, see if things look weird … and just say, like there are inconsistencies here,” he suggests.
Training yourself to spot these differences is key in today’s media landscape. Carrasco is quick to point out that laypeople know when something just doesn’t feel right about a video. It’s necessary to build the capacity to discern when it is true.
