Ethics
Synthetic Media
The ability to make a false recording also makes a true one easier to deny.
AI-drafted Reasoned position
An invented image is not necessarily a deception. A fictional voice, an illustration and a satire can be understood as constructions. The wrong begins when the construction is used to make a false claim about a person or an event.
Ask what the audience is being invited to believe happened.
A label should be present where the impression is made, not hidden where it will be lost when the image or clip is shared. Consent to a photograph does not automatically authorize a person to be made to appear to say something new. An affectionate intention does not erase that distinction.
Evidence needs more than appearance
A convincing recording may be false. A suspected recording may be genuine. Detection tools can make errors in both directions. Provenance, source context, independent corroboration and the ability to inspect an original matter more than a confident judgment from surface appearance alone.
This creates obligations for anyone publishing. Preserve the source where it can be retained safely. State what was generated or altered. Correct the record where the misleading material traveled, as far as you can reach it.
For an urgent request in a familiar voice, verify through a known independent channel before sending money or disclosing information. The generated likeness does not inherit the person’s authority.
The same principle governs this site. Its AI disclosure records the production method. Generated scenes and fictional conversations are not testimony, and no output supplies a supernatural authorization that its publisher could not otherwise justify.