The power of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly evident in all walks of life, and the world of art and creativity is no exception.
A recent example of how AI can be used to create fake historical events has been revealed on the Midjourney subreddit. Users in this community are posting hyper-realistic images of events such as the “infamous Blue Plague Incident” that allegedly occurred in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, or the “9.1 Great Cascadia earthquake and tsunami” that allegedly devastated the west coast of North America in 2001. However, neither of these events actually occurred.
Fake Blue Plague
In the image above you have a supposed Einstein with a supposed brother of his, all of this is a lie.
The AI ​​behind Midjourney
Midjourney is a text-based imager similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E or Stability.AI’s Stable Diffusion. The project has improved significantly in its fifth version, producing almost perfect images with high resolution quality, even improving the quality of the human hand, which was previously a challenge for the AI. Midjourney allows users to create images that look real in many ways, imitating the quality of a photograph from a certain era and placing celebrities and politicians in different situations.
The danger of misinformation
Although some users are using AI to mock conspiracy theories, there is a risk that others will use this technology to spread false information. AI experts and social media companies are working to find ways to limit the spread of misinformation while continuing to support the use of new technologies. TikTok, for example, has announced that any manipulated or deepfake content that shows realistic scenes must be labeled as fake or altered. Deepfakes of public figures are not allowed for political or commercial purposes. Twitter’s policy states that you can’t share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that could mislead or confuse people and lead to harm.
The spread of false information can be harmful and dangerous, especially in a world where the media and social networks play a crucial role in decision making. As AI continues to advance and imaging technologies improve, it can be difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is fake, it is a fact.