I can tell and I’m way older. If I had to guess I would say most with a science background or training involving critical thinking could tell easily, because from what I’ve seen the most susceptible groups judge an image with how much it aligns with their worldview and not objective reality or apparent image artifacts.
If people want to believe it is real they will, and if they don’t then they will not regardless of of it is real. Gen-Z are probably just more critical of sales media from being forced to view it.
because from what I’ve seen the most susceptible groups judge an image with how much it aligns with their worldview and not objective reality or apparent image artifacts.
My mother in law is extremely right-wing Putin aligned.
Early in the Ukraine war (before AI images really became a thing), she was showing us MS-paint level image edits of a (black and white) WWII tank trying to roll over a (color) baby with a (color) Russian (super?)soldier holding the tank back with his bare hands to prevent it. She claimed this was proof of Ukrainians killing Russian babies, claiming it was a real, unedited photograph.
That was seriously a terrible image edit. Worse than shitpost memes. It really did look like somebody threw it together in 2 minutes with MS Paint. But she (at least claimed to) wholeheartedly believe it was a real, unedited photo.
This type of “it’s real if I agree with it” person will believe anything they agree with, no matter how egregiously wrong and stupid it is.
An interesting emergent behavior is people being wary of AI and questioning media openly is often viewed as an insult or undue criticism, as it is associated with dislike of the content itself even when that may not be the case at all.
There have been a couple of times I was confused by the number of JPEG artifacts and questioned about the legitimacy of a piece only to be berated for it.
I can tell and I’m way older. If I had to guess I would say most with a science background or training involving critical thinking could tell easily, because from what I’ve seen the most susceptible groups judge an image with how much it aligns with their worldview and not objective reality or apparent image artifacts.
If people want to believe it is real they will, and if they don’t then they will not regardless of of it is real. Gen-Z are probably just more critical of sales media from being forced to view it.
My mother in law is extremely right-wing Putin aligned.
Early in the Ukraine war (before AI images really became a thing), she was showing us MS-paint level image edits of a (black and white) WWII tank trying to roll over a (color) baby with a (color) Russian (super?)soldier holding the tank back with his bare hands to prevent it. She claimed this was proof of Ukrainians killing Russian babies, claiming it was a real, unedited photograph.
That was seriously a terrible image edit. Worse than shitpost memes. It really did look like somebody threw it together in 2 minutes with MS Paint. But she (at least claimed to) wholeheartedly believe it was a real, unedited photo.
This type of “it’s real if I agree with it” person will believe anything they agree with, no matter how egregiously wrong and stupid it is.
This reminds me of when Trump was claiming this MS Paint job was proof Kilmar Abrego Garcia was MS13
This probably makes more sense… people turning a blind eye to things they don’t like or believe in.
An interesting emergent behavior is people being wary of AI and questioning media openly is often viewed as an insult or undue criticism, as it is associated with dislike of the content itself even when that may not be the case at all.
There have been a couple of times I was confused by the number of JPEG artifacts and questioned about the legitimacy of a piece only to be berated for it.