It’s happened: I’ve been duped by an AI-generated video. I knew this day would come, but I wasn't ready for it to be so soon. I feel afraid, scared, even violated – almost as though, like Morpheus rescuing Neo from The Matrix, I’ve been disconnected from a reality that never truly existed.
Fortunately my machine-generated nightmare only lasted a few moments, not a lifetime. Equally short but frightening is that AI video generation tools have only been around for a few years, yet humans are now capable of producing lifelike videos with them.
I’ve been saying for a while that AI tools are developing faster than most of us want to believe. But, at this rate, it won't be long before the machines completely take over.
As I watched the viral clip showing the behind-the-scenes of a disaster movie being filmed, the thought of it being AI never even entered my mind.
From the way in which the mini tsunami enveloped the model coastal palm trees and later collapsed the buildings further inland, there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt that this was a real video. I even got caught out by the people, something AI typically has trouble rendering accurately in videos.
ABOVE: now I've given it away, the video seem like AI from the start to you, but I was convinced…
But then I headed to the comments to find out more about the film – and here my reality came crashing down. Boom, right there in the second comment: “So, this is an AI video.” In disbelief I scrolled further to see if their claims were unfounded but, to my horror, the two frightful letters 'AI' cropped up again and again.
“This is it,” I told myself, after a moment of being dumbfounded, shocked, and then upset. “You’ve been hoodwinked by an AI-generated video for the first time.” No other AI video has ever seemed real enough to pull the veil over my eyes – something, as a photographer, I’ve prided myself on. But this was different, and I was oblivious.
So I watched again, this time hypervigilant, looking for the telltale signs of AI trickery. And there they were, subtly among the most realistic of frames.
On second watch, the camera dolly riding on rails seemed to move in an ever-so-jerky way. The production support crew running alongside the wave tank, it just didn't look right. Then the dead, but almost invisible, giveaway: a cameraman with two right arms.
But none of this mattered. It was too late; no amount of repenting could undo what had happened. The machine world had hooked me up to its meticulously programmed ruse before sucking me dry of all vitality and tossing me back into the real world (read that in Morpheus’ deep, shuddering voice).
Although, upon rewatching the video, I also read the description properly – and there, tucked away at the end, was an AI disclaimer. So, props to the creator for at least being transparent about their work (unlike the Architect, who purposely programmed the Matrix as an insidious illusion).
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