From Reuters
Hurricane Milton: Fact-checking conspiracies, rumors and AI images
By Esther Chan, Hardik Vyas, and Lydia Morrish
The aftermath of Hurricane Milton has left a trail of misinformation surrounding relief efforts in hard-hit Florida, including conspiracy theories about officials controlling the weather.
The storm’s devastation was not as severe as initially feared in Florida, one of the many states that were battered by Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks earlier.
A wave of misinformation saw at least three congressional Republicans condemn conspiracy theories repeated by fellow members of their party...
Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said in an email that their models flagged these images as likely AI-generated.
“These three images are (not very good) AI-generated images,” he added. “There are tell-tale and obvious structural defects in all images including inconsistent reflections in the water.”
“The danger of this content is that it further muddies the waters as officials are trying to save lives and it casts everything we see into doubt. This poisoning of the information ecosystem is incredibly dangerous for our society and democracy...”
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley.
