A wave of fake photos and videos has spread online claiming to show Hurricane Erin and the North Carolina coast.
They are designed to drive traffic, scam people from money and cause confusion. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein warns residents not to fall into AI-generated content.
“We don't get our information from social media. It's too easy for a sleazy, truly dramatic story to take root and spread like a wildfire,” he said at a press conference on Hurricane Erin on Wednesday.
Many of the fake photos and videos that went viral appear to come from a single account on your Facebook account.
Wral's 5 On Your Side reached out to page host Alex Lex and asked why he was posting these photos without making it clear that they were fake. He didn't respond immediately.
It doesn't take long for AI to turn a normal image into a disaster scene.
By uploading your regular photos to AI software, you can instantly convert them into what looks like storm damage or floods. But there are ways to tell you what's true and what's not.
- Look for abnormalities. Hands and feet are common prizes AI still struggles to render them accurately.
- Please check the details. In one fake video from the WRAL news truck, water is poured into the windshield, but it never really happens. In another example, a person's hand is strangely visible with fists.
- Do reverse image search. If the image doesn't appear anywhere else, it's probably fake.
At a morning press conference, WRAL News asked Stein what residents could do to verify images connected to Hurricane Erin.
“If you really want to know what's going on in the storm, you'll probably look at the weather channel, watch the news on your local TV and watch the National Weather Service,” Stein said.
