EDITORIAL - Another skill needed

According to a report in this newspaper, around 200 people have fallen victim to a tourism scam in Sta. Fe in Bantayan Island.

 The victims said they came upon irresistible promos advertised on the social media pages of some hotels. They made reservations and payments, expecting that accommodations and arrangements were made for them, only to find out that there were none.

It turns out those promos weren’t real, neither were the supposed social media pages.

Last November, former Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center official Byron Garcia was fooled into thinking that a photo posted by the governor of herself in a SWAT uniform was real. He sued her for illegal use of uniforms and insignia, only to find out that the photo had been generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In an editorial back then, we suggested that being able to tell if an image is AI-generated is a much-needed skill today, not just to save ourselves from embarrassment like in the case of Garcia, but also to avoid being fooled or scammed.

But now it would seem we also need new skills; like being able to spot bogus promos and fake websites or social media pages.

 This can be hard to do; the tools needed to replicate a website or social media page are now available to anyone who knows how to use them. And, frankly, many of us today have trouble distinguishing between what is real and what isn’t.

 We only need to look at the internet to see how images or even videos can now be faked. Disinformants now specialize in pairing images of someone with a quote he or she never said, or coming up with fake news using the assets, logo, and branding of legitimate news sources. Even videos can be altered by AI to make people look like they are kissing, or doing something naughty.

So if almost anything can be faked, so can a website or social media page.

 And this is where it becomes scary; many of us cannot tell if a photo, a news report, a website, a social media page, or a tourism promo, is real or not. Being able to do so is a skill many of us need to know and fast.