• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, June 9, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Fake AI History Photos Cloud the Past

Staff Writer with AFP by Staff Writer with AFP
10/16/24
in World
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

Participants at Intel's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Day stand in front of a poster during the event in the Indian city of Bangalore on April 4, 2017. Photo: Manjunath Kiran, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A wave of touching photos showing great moments in time is fascinating amateur historians online. The problem? They are not real — and may be clouding our view of the past.

Widely shared on social media, the atmospheric black and white shots — a mother and her child starving in the Great Depression; an exhausted soldier in the Vietnam war — may look at first like real historic documents.

But they were created by artificial intelligence, and researchers fear they are muddying the waters of real history.

“AI has caused a tsunami of fake history, especially images,” said Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse, a Dutch historian who debunks false claims online.

“In some cases, they even make an AI version of a real old photo. It is really weird, especially when the original is very famous.”

One photo shared on Facebook shows a pair of fresh-faced young men posing in front of an antique biplane: purportedly Orville and Wilbur Wright at the time of their first powered flight.

But those are not the Wright Brothers.

Real archive shots from the time show mustachioed Orville and his taller brother Wilbur in flat caps, looking nothing like the blond pair in the sepia-hued AI image.

Hiroshima Reproduction

Among the images created using Midjourney, a popular AI online image generator, is a series of fake reproductions portraying the moment when the suspected assassin of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself shot dead by Jack Ruby in 1963.

Other images on Midjourney purport to show the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima in 1945, the invasion of Prague by Soviet-allied troops in 1968, and even a vision of the Roman Coliseum in ancient times.

“They often focus on events from too long ago to have been photographed or on moments that are poorly documented,” said Marina Amaral, an artist who specializes in adding color to black and white photographs.

“This creates a risk of false visuals being accepted as fact, which could, over time, distort our understanding of history and weaken public trust in visual evidence as a reliable source for learning about the past.”

Spotting Fake Images

For now, Amaral and Teeuwissen believe they can still tell fake historical images from real ones just by looking at them.

AI-generated photos often have tell-tale glitches: too many fingers on a hand, missing details — such as the lack of a propeller on the Wright brothers’ plane — or, on the other hand, compositions that are too perfect.

“AI-generated pictures can recreate the look, but they miss the human element, the intent, the reason behind the photographer’s choices,” said Amaral.

“They may be visually convincing, but they’re ultimately hollow.”

For Teeuwissen, “real photos are made by real people and there’s usually something that’s out of focus, or someone looks silly by accident, the makeup looks bad, et cetera.”

But she judges it is “only a matter of time” before the quality of the AI image makes fakes hard to detect with the naked eye — a “dangerous” prospect, she says, which would amplify disinformation.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer with AFP

Staff Writer with AFP

Related Posts

This illustration picture shows the AI (Artificial Intelligence) smartphone app ChatGPT surrounded by other AI Apps in Vaasa, on June 6, 2023
World

AI Images of White Faces Are Now ‘Hyper-Real’: Study

by Staff Writer
November 13, 2023
A laptop screen showing ChatGPT
National

Scientists Use Brain Scans and AI to ‘Decode’ Thoughts

by Staff Writer
May 1, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference
World

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

by Staff Writer with AFP
March 19, 2023
A laptop screen showing ChatGPT
National

ChatGPT Takes on the Tough US Medical Licensing Exam

by Staff Writer
February 10, 2023
An AFP journalist views an example of a "deepfake" video manipulated using artificial intelligence.
Featured

Deepfake ‘News Anchors’ in Pro-China Footage: Research

by Staff Writer
February 13, 2023
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Business

Elon Musk Says Tesla’s Robot Will Make Physical Work a ‘Choice’

by Staff Writer
August 20, 2021
Next Post
Ukraine invasion

EU Lawmakers Approve New $38B Loan for Ukraine

Many Rohingya refugees in Indonesia enlist the help of traffickers to cross the sea to neighboring Malaysia.

More Than 150 Rohingya Refugees Rescued off Indonesia: UN

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

Two protesters wave Mexican flags while standing on a vandalized Waymo vehicle during a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025, following a series of aggressive federal immigration operations in the city.

Unrest in Los Angeles Over Immigration Raids as Troops Sent by Trump Fan Out

June 9, 2025
US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on August 4, 2020. Photo: Drew Angerer/AFP.

US Steel, Aluminum Tariff Hikes to Take Effect Wednesday: W. House

June 4, 2025
textile workers in Kenya

Workers’ Rights in ‘Free Fall’ Globally: Report

June 2, 2025
The new citizenship law has sparked two weeks of protests across India

India Records 6.5 Percent Annual Growth

May 30, 2025
A hungry young boy eats raw noodles as dislocated Palestinians carry the humanitarian aid they have received from a United Nations distribution point in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip on May 27, 2025.

UN Blasts New US-Backed Aid Distribution System in Gaza

May 28, 2025
A man holding a Venezuelan national flag during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela’s Maduro Wins Landslide in Election Boycotted by Opposition

May 26, 2025

Opinion

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

November 15, 2024
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Can the UN Human Rights Council Protect Rights While Abusers Sit at the Table?

October 28, 2024
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post

OSZAR »