The shocking use of an AI-generated deepfake image by many online news sites needs to attract way more attention than it has.

Three people died in a plane crash on Sunday (June 8) and in the clamour to get the news out there and have a hard-hitting image for their stories, several news sites grabbed this image that was circulating on the internet. Many even put their own photo credit logos on the image, making it seem more legitimate.

The problem with the image was that it could have easily been identified as fake, even with a cursory glance. Let us explain:

• The crash took place in a forest, yet there are no trees in the image.
• One of the accident scene workers has three legs!
• And the plane was not only the wrong colour, but the identification code was white instead of black.

What is truly baffling is that someone went to extraordinary lengths to fake the image. It was not just an incorrect use of a photo, because they even used the plane’s registration code in the image.

Some of the online sites that used the incorrect image are household names.

What are deepfake images?

Deepfake usually refers to highly realistic but fake images, video or audio normally generated using AI tools.

Deepfakes have, however, been around long before generative AI tools became the ‘in thing’, with tools like Photoshop being used back in the day.

Here are a few tips for recognising an image that may have been generated using AI tools:

• Look for missing or extra hands or feet.
• Look at the faces; they are often distorted.
• Look for misspelled text or foreign-looking text in the image.
• Look for inconsistent reflections, colours or shadows.

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