Bloomberg Podcast: UFO Hunting In The Age Of Photoshop

As Hurricane Florence hit the US coast, doctored images started appearing on social media. Hoax photos showing sharks making their way onto land are just the latest example of a rising trend of disseminating fake images online. In fact, the stream of misleading images has grown so big, that even Facebook was forced to act, recently extending its fact-checking efforts from text to photos and videos.

In the latest Bloomberg's Decrypted technology podcast, hosts Pia Gadkari and Austin Weinstein set up to examine the problem of fake images. Unlike me, they start their analysis not from Sharkando, but from another topic that is even more prone to rumours and conspiracy theories: the little green men.

“Advances in photo and video editing technology have enabled fake news, birthed viral hoaxes and even empowered corrupt governments. But they’ve also had a less publicized consequence: complicating mankind’s search for extraterrestrial life,” introduction to this week’s Decrypted says.

As Gadkari and Weinstein unravel a rich bounty of encounters with aliens, they also bring valuable insights, discussing, for example, deep fakes or confirmation bias. Sadly, they do not mention solutions, such as this recently released browser extension that can detect doctored images. Still, by focusing on the baffling phenomenon of UFO sightings, the podcast offers an interesting twist to the conversation about online manipulation.

“This week on Decrypted, we’re taking a look at what it means for society when it becomes nearly impossible to tell whether a photo or video has been manipulated. It’s part of our ongoing look at the unintended consequences of technology, where we’re examining how Silicon Valley’s best-laid plans can go array,” says Pia Gadkari.