HOUSTON – After natural disasters, we all scroll on social media and find eye-catching pictures and videos of damage and rescue efforts.
Recently, these AI-generated photos of a girl and her puppy in a rescue boat surfaced, and many people thought it was real.
Margaret Hernandez is a Houstonian who spotted the image on social media. She says she feels manipulated after finding out it is fake.
“This AI technology, it’s very scary and people are using it to manipulate us and I’m very scared of it” said Hernandez.
Ginny Katz is the CEO of HazAdpat, an app that helps people determine what to do before, during, and after disasters.
AI-generated images are not regulated, so Katz says we must make it our responsibility to spot them.
After closer examination, Katz pointed out some signs that the picture was AI-generated.
“If you look really closely at those images, you’re going to see that the animal’s fur is it’s not real, really real looking. And the eyes right there are very cartoon-looking and it just seems impractical, right? How did they get such a clear image in that kind of a disaster scenario? And would a child that age really be alone by themselves?” says Katz.
The emotional manipulation images like this create can undermine the real work of first responders and other local and federal agencies.
“Images come up and, you know, number one they create panic or fear in the public, that’s dangerous. But then two to give a false representation of a disaster happening and the response happening that can cause so many other dangers and trust issues in the people that are both experiencing the disaster and then people outside of the disaster,” says Kat.
