MILWAUKEE — Social media is filled with stories and information about the war in Iran that can increase anxiety for some.
It also raises concern about how you know what you’re seeing is real or artificial intellegence-generated.
Experts warn that fast-spreading information and misinformation on social media can cause secondary trauma, especially if you don’t know whether the videos or photos are real or fake.
At the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Professor Derek Riley, director of the computer science program, is an expert in artificial intelligence. He is skilled at detecting AI-generated and deepfake content.
“I’m seeing the building move too quickly,” he said while watching an AI-generated video of a building being bombed in Iran.
Riley said it’s easy for most people to fall for these, but people need to be more wary about what they’re seeing on their screens.
“I think we basically can’t trust that anything we see, videos, images, unless it’s real life,” Riley said. “I don’t think we can trust that it actually happened.”
In West Allis, clinicians at Rogers Behavioral Health are well aware of the downsides of social media.
“We feel kind of powerless and helpless in a lot of ways,” said Chief Clinical Officer Heather Jones. “Sometimes things are happening in our communities, sometimes they’re happening overseas, and there isn’t anything, or there’s maybe a feeling that there’s nothing we can do about it.”
She said those feelings of helplessness can exacerbate our mental health symptoms. Jones said that watching just 15 minutes of threatening news, real or fake, can increase our levels of anxiety and depression.
“What is different about today is that threats are available to us 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Jones said.
To prevent this, she said you must simply limit your screen time and replace it with something that makes you happy.
“Putting your phone down 30 minutes before bed, reading or journaling. Writing down five things that you’re grateful for,” Jones suggested.
Riley said the only way to truly avoid AI altogether is to put the phone down. But he added you can lower your chances of being fooled by being skeptical.
“I think the key to consuming media is critical thinking,” Riley said. “I think you have to look at what you’re seeing and think for yourself: ‘Is this real? Do I trust it? What’s the source?’ You have to ask all those questions.”
Riley encourages individuals to report harmful AI content to the platform.