How can we tell the difference?

As social media feeds fill with AI-generated imagery, even the tech savvy are losing track of truthHow can we tell the difference? Wendy SloaneI admit my online reading habits are unconventional.I'm a longtime admirer of conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel, one of whom recently got married, and I'm fascinated by the resilience and determination of 26-yearold Loren Shauers, whose body was cut in half in a forklift accident in Montana.After years writing "triumph over adversity" articles for women's magazines, I'm drawn to bizarre stories that don't captivate others.That might explain why my social media feeds are packed with humaninterest stories, accompanied by striking videos and images.Increasingly, though, it is impossible to tell which are genuine and which are AI-generated.According to Ofcom, more than half the population now gets its news from social media, rising to around 75 per cent among 16 to 24-year-olds.At the same time, those platforms -TikTok, Instagram and YouTube -are being flooded with a new kind of content: "AI slop", fake images, videos and posts designed to look authentic, provoke strong emotional reactions to maximise (and monetise) online engagement, regardless of their authenticity.This flood of fabricated AI content is produced "without judgement, care, authorship, responsibility or any meaningful relation to truth", writes David Webster, professor of philosophy and pedagogy at Buckinghamshire New University.Much of it exists for one purpose: to generate clicks, shares and advertising revenue.But, he argues, the problem extends beyond "uncanny images of a many-fingered Jesus that someone's grandparent shares on Facebook".It also includes search engine optimisation (SEO) articles, fake reviews and plausible-sounding blog posts that quietly reshape