Photoshopped videos on the internet have ben a thing for a very long time, but they used to take a lot of time, skill and effort to make and were not able to fool most people, as there would always be something to indicate that the video was not real, but the advent of Artificial Intelligence made these videos a lot easier to make, a lot more common, and a lot more realistic, as one couple from Malaysia found out when they planned a vacation to a nonexistent place.
We can all relate to seeing wonderful places showcased on Social Media and wanting to go there to experience them for ourselves. Instagram has ensured that most of the wonders of the world, public or hidden, are featured in as many grids as possible, and more that one has fallen in love with the curated version of a real place. However, this is another thing entirely, as the technology was used to create an entirely new place that does not exist, and it did it well enough to fool a couple that just wanted to go on vacation.
The Malaysia vacation spot that was created by Artificial Intelligence, a showcase of the power of what it can do
The story broke thanks to the South China Morning Post, when they reported on the couple’s shock at going to a supposed attraction only to find that it did not exist. In the town of Kuak Hulu in Perak, Malaysia, there should have been a cable car attraction that travelers and locals could use to go up and down a stunning mountain, with infrastructure, souvenir shops, restaurants, and, of course, plenty of tourists. Except this is all fake.
The video, released by TV Rakyat, a television channel had used Artificial Intelligence to create all of this footage that was shown, and those who have seen it can have a hard time distinguishing reality from creation. The video features a reporter going through the excursion that tourists would take, even going in the cable car, visiting the shops and speaking to others enjoying the day. Once you know it is not a real video and has been created by technology, a few things start to jump out at you, like the distortion of the background images or the fact that the infrastructure we can see looks very modern in some parts of the video, but seems older when seen closer, or the cable car design, which is also questionable when you analyze the footage.
But in cases featuring Artificial Intelligence, context is everything. We do not pay enough attention, never mind in the first pass, to images and videos, relying on the source to ensure that what we see is reality, and in this case the couple trusted that a video released on television would be real, just based on that fact.
Alas, it was not to be, and the station has taken down the video, although it still floats on the internet daring users to decide if they too would have bought the ruse and thought that this was a real video. Although we would all like to think that we would not have made this mistake, the reality is that most of us would have just paid have a mind to it and bought it hook line and sinker, which is the point.
In today’s day and age we must be very vigilant and look for the inconsistencies before making any decisions or believing in anything that we see or hear. Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and regulations will do no good by the time they get here, so using your best judgement is the only thing you ca do to ensure that you are not a victim of the videos.