These are the AI fakes you need to warn your friends and family about

I've been reporting on AI for a year and a half now.

Throughout that time, I’ve regularly visited Reddit's r/isthisAI community.

This is where people share suspicious photos, videos and messages and ask other users to help them work out whether they're real or AI-generated.

I find it fascinating to see where AI is showing up in everyday life.

But some of the posts are also pretty worrying.

I've seen people questioning whether photos of damage to rental properties have been faked, whether someone their relative is dating actually exists, whether an ultrasound is real or whether the adorable puppy they're about to buy is just an illusion.

Of course, scams and deception like these have been around for years.

But what's worrying is how AI can make them much both easier to pull off and harder to spot.

I became so interested in this that I even ran my own series of tests , trying to create fake certificates, fossils and receipts to see whether ChatGPT would stop me.

Most of the time, it didn’t.

While plenty of us have got used to questioning what we see online, not everyone knows just how convincing AI-generated content has become.

That might be particularly true of friends and family who are less familiar with the technology.

So I've picked out some of the most worrying examples I've come across, along with a few practical ways to protect yourself and the people you care about.

Because I think we could all benefit from knowing a little more about how AI can be used to deceive us.