WSJ Tech News Briefing · Saturday, August 15, 2026
The rise of generative AI is making it difficult for people to discern real images and information from fakes, leading to widespread doubt. Digital forensics expert Hani Farid notes that while AI is improving, it still struggles with physics and geometry, providing subtle clues to its artificial nature.
“As someone who likes to think of myself as technologically fluent and able to spot AI versus a real image. I thought that the image of Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal was AI.”
“But you have to understand about generative AIs, it doesn't understand the physics and the geometry of the physical world. It's a statistical inference engine.”
“Basically, AI looks for patterns, which it's good at. But sometimes those patterns don't match up with the real world. And it has a harder time with that. And so what that means is that it often gets the physics of the world incorrect.”