HANOVER COUNTY, Va. β As artificial intelligence-generated content floods social media platforms, educators are teaching the next generation how to identify fake videos, images and audio that can spread misinformation and cause financial harm.
At Studio 99 at Hanover High School, TV programming and production instructor Brian Capaldo is warning his students to be careful with what they consume in media. The lesson comes as deepfakes and AI-generated content increasingly target everything from elections to job applications.
"It just couldn't be more important to try to get these guys thinking about not only how to make good video, tell good stories, but also to determine if the story that they're seeing is real or not," Capaldo said. "For entertainment it's one thing, but when you talk about news, it's just important to have a base knowledge... it's important that you can trust what it is that you see."
The stakes are high.
According to AI and Society, financial losses caused by AI-enabled fraud reached $12.5 billion in 2023.
During primary season, a robocall impersonating President Biden told New Hampshire voters to stay home, demonstrating how AI can interfere with elections.
Other reports show scammers using deepfakes to secure jobs with stolen identities.
Capaldo teaches his students to look for visual clues like unrealistic facial expressions, pay attention to audio quality and synchronization, and verify the source of content to spot deepfakes.
High school senior Abby Journigan, who is looking toward a career in broadcasting, shares an embarrassing confession.
"Oh, 100% I have been fooled by AI before," Journigan said. "It's honestly very scary and a little embarrassing when it happens, but I'll open up the comments on an Instagram video or a TikTok and I realize it's AI, and then I look back and I see the telltale signs, and I'm just amazed that I didn't catch them before."
Classmate Breanna Foreman, who wants a career in marketing, already sees how deepfakes and AI-generated images affect online content.
"I remember when I was younger, I had Musical.ly. That was like what was before TikTok, and I never really saw fake babies dancing on Musical.ly, but on TikTok, you see it like almost every three videos," Foreman said.
Capaldo believes young people have an advantage in spotting new technology because they have grown up with digital devices.
"These kids have been born with a device in their hand, basically, so it is not foreign to them," Capaldo said. "New technology, they are much more adept to spotting new technology, utilizing new technology."
Learning to identify fakes now could help students like Journigan and Foreman succeed in their chosen professions as AI-generated content becomes more sophisticated and widespread.
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