On Thursday, I reported the first confirmation that the US Department of Homeland Security, which houses immigration agencies, is using Google and Adobe’s AI video generators to create content it shares with the public. The news comes as immigration agencies have flooded social media with content to support President Trump’s mass deportation agenda — some of which is created with AI (like A Video about “Christmas after mass deportations”).
But I’ve received two types of reactions from readers that may be equally telling of the prescription crisis we’re in.
One was among those who were not surprised, as the White House posted on January 22 Digitally converted A photo of a woman arrested at a snow protest, showing her hysterical and in tears. Kelly Dorr, the White House’s deputy communications director, did not respond to questions about whether the White House had changed the photo, but It is written“The memes will continue.”
The second was from readers who saw no point in reporting that DHS was using AI to edit content shared with the public, since news outlets were apparently doing the same. He points to the fact that news network MS Now (formerly MSNBC) shared a photo of Alex Pretty that was AI-edited to make her look prettier, leading to several viral clips this week, including one on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Fight fire with fire, in other words? Now the spokesperson of Hon told Snopes that the news outlet aired her edited photo.
There is no reason to lump these two cases of altered content into the same category, or to read them as evidence that truth no longer matters. The US government has refused to share the clearly altered image with the public and to answer whether it was deliberately manipulated. Another involved a news outlet broadcasting a photo Should have known was changed but some steps had to be taken to reveal the error.
What these reactions reveal instead is a flaw in how we were collectively preparing for the moment. Warnings about an AI truth crisis revolve around a basic thesis: not being able to tell what truth is will destroy us, so we need tools to independently verify truth. My two takeaways are that these tools are failing, and that fact-checking is essential, no longer capable of generating the social trust we were promised.