Pics and it didn’t happen
有图无真相
AI-generated content is raising the value of trust
人工智能生成的内容正在提升信誉的价值
Who did the posting will soon matter more than what was posted
很快，谁发布了内容将比发布了什么内容更重要
IT IS NOW possible to generate fake but realistic content with little more than the click of a mouse. This can be fun: a TikTok account on which—among other things—an artificial Tom Cruise wearing a purple robe sings “Tiny Dancer” to (the real) Paris Hilton holding a toy dog has attracted 5.1m followers. It is also a profound change in societies that have long regarded images, video and audio as close to ironclad proof that something is real. Phone scammers now need just ten seconds of audio to mimic the voices of loved ones in distress; rogue AI-generated Tom Hankses and Taylor Swifts endorse dodgy products online, and fake videos of politicians are proliferating.
现在只需轻点鼠标，就能生成虚假但逼真的内容。可能会是好玩的东西，比如一个TikTok账号下五花八门的视频中，有一则是人工合成的汤姆·克鲁斯穿着紫色长袍，对着抱着一只小狗狗的（真人）帕丽斯·希尔顿唱《小小舞者》（Tiny Dancer），该账号已经吸引了510万粉丝关注。这也是一个深刻的社会变化：在此之前，人们长久以来都认为图像、视频和音频几乎等同于某物真实存在的铁证。现在，搞电话诈骗的人只需要十秒钟的音频就能假扮某人的亲人求救，人工智能（AI）生成的汤姆·汉克斯和泰勒·斯威夫特在网上为可疑产品代言，有政客露脸的虚假视频也是层出不穷。
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | dog 能带来怎样的困扰？
- ironclad 绝对可靠的、天衣无缝的、万无一失的
- scammer 骗子；诈骗者
- mimic 模仿（人的言行举止），（尤指）做滑稽模仿；（外表或行为举止）像，似
- distress 忧虑、悲伤、痛苦；贫困、窘迫、困苦；（船、飞机等）遇难，遇险
- rogue 行为失常的；暴戾的
- endorse 引申指“支持、认可、赞同”，现在多指通过明确的陈述公开表示支持或赞同某人、某个声明或某个行动方针（参见：小词详解 | endorse）
- dodgy 不诚实的，不怀好意的；不可靠的，有风险的
- proliferate 激增、剧增
The fundamental problem is an old one. From the printing press to the internet, new technologies have often made it easier to spread untruths or impersonate the trustworthy. Typically, humans have used shortcuts to sniff out foul play: one too many spelling mistakes suggests an email might be a phishing attack, for example. Most recently, AI-generated images of people have often been betrayed by their strangely rendered hands; fake video and audio can sometimes be out of sync. Implausible content now immediately raises suspicion among those who know what AI is capable of doing.
根本的问题其实是个老问题。从印刷术到互联网，新技术往往使传播不实信息或冒充可信者变得更加容易。通常情况下，人类会抓住某些破绽来识别猫腻，比如，如果拼写错误太多，就表明某封电子邮件可能是网络钓鱼攻击。至于最近，AI生成的人物图像往往会因为奇怪的手部细节被识破，伪造的视频和音频有时则会出现音画不同步的问题。现在，有悖于常理的内容马上就会引起那些清楚AI本领的人的怀疑。
- impersonate 假冒、模仿
- trustworthy 值得信赖的、可靠的、值得信任的、可信赖的
- foul 既可以表示行径“邪恶的、残忍的”或“奸诈的、不正当的”，比如不择手段（by fair means or foul）；也可以指“脏话连篇的、辱骂性的、下流的”，比如脏话（foul language）、一开口就骂人的臭嘴（foul mouth）。（参见：小词详解 | foul）
- phishing 网络诱骗（通过互联网或电邮骗取他人身份证件、银行账号等以盗取金钱）
- render 表示“渲染”，即利用计算机软件由模型生成图像的过程（参见：熟词僻义 | render 是一种怎样的表达？）
- sync 是 synchronization （同步）的缩略词
- implausible 似乎不合情理的；不像真实的（参见：小词详解 | plausible）
