This is happening more and more often. You're in bed social media scrolling (a few more TikToks!) and you'll stumble upon a fantastic one video— a huge leopard leaps into the backyard, where an incredibly brave house cat scares the predator away from an innocent baby. You are about to send it to a friend, but at the last moment doubts creep in. This real?
Some videos created artificial intelligence are so realistic that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from real footage. While this may seem like an innocent enough prank, scientists are sounding the alarm about the potential consequences. conservation children's efforts and relationships with nature.
IN Conservation biology studya team of researchers explored the virality and potentially problematic nature of AI-generated wildlife photos and videos. social media. They found three main problems: misperceptions of animal behavior, anthropomorphizing (the application of human qualities to animals) and the growing distance between society and nature.
“Our findings suggest that some publications are cause for concern because they do not reflect reality, which may contribute to misinformation. For effective biodiversity conservation, it is important that the public is well informed.” Jose Guerrero Casadoco-author of the study and a zoologist from the University of Cordoba in Spain, says Popular Science.
He points to a video of bird parents killing “evil” snakes. “Some users argue in favor of this outcome, but what implications does this have for snake conservation? If government resources are directed toward snake conservation but there is insufficient public support, efforts may be undermined,” he adds.
According to the University of Cordoba, such videos can also give a false impression of the abundance of vulnerable species, further widening the already existing gap between humans and wildlife. statement about the research. Likewise, these videos may also give young children false expectations about local wildlife and realistic interactions with wild animals.
In other words, when they realize that the rabbits in their backyard won't have a wonderful time jumping on a trampoline with a black bear, “it has the opposite effect in terms of connection,” Rocío Serrano, another co-author and a researcher at the Department of Education at the University of Cordoba.
What's worse is that people, especially young people, are increasingly using social media as a source of information. In addition, false images of friendly exotic animals make more people want to keep them as pets.
More broadly, regarding animals, the team suggests counteracting the potential harm spread by these videos through strategies such as increased media literacy and environmental education in school, “ensuring that children understand from an early age that lions are not here,” concludes Francisco Sánchez, co-author of the study and a researcher at the Department of Zoology at the University of Córdoba.
Moral of the story: Be mindful of the content you interact with. While some AI videos are easier to suspect, you should always carefully for video quality and lengthbad text, weird looking hands. Others are still more difficult to identify.
“AI-generated wildlife videos may look convincing, but there are some telltale signs,” University at Buffalo computer engineer. Xiwei Liu tells Popular Science. “Watch for unnatural movements—animals may move too smoothly or in a way that defies physics. Lighting inconsistencies are another clue: shadows and reflections often don't match the environment. Finally, look closely at small details like fur or feathers; AI models sometimes blur textures or follow patterns unnaturally.”
