Berkeley Talks: The erosion of shared reality in the age of deepfakes - Berkeley News UC Berkeley digital forensics expert Hany Farid explores how generative AI and real-time deepfakes are undermining public trust and reshaping our ability to discern truth online.

Speaking to Berkeley News in a podcast episode, Prof. Hany Farid discusses generative AI deepfakes and solutions to take preventative efforts to combat misinformation.

“Stop getting your news from social media. That’s not what it was designed for," he recommends.

Merchandise collection featuring UC Berkeley School of Information logo on various items: a gray beanie, a navy baseball cap, a yellow t-shirt, a gray t-shirt, a navy jacket, a navy sweatshirt, and a navy vest.

ANNOUNCING: I School Swag is Back! :mega:

Show your I School pride with our BRAND NEW official gear featuring tee shirts, a crewneck sweatshirt, a jacket, and more!

The store closes on Sunday, April 26, 2026!

stores.inksoft.com/uc_berkeley_school_of_in...

This image contains an edited photo with text suggesting the Moon mission is fake. A label says "FALSE" and there is an AFP logo, indicating fact-checking content. Hands and what appears to be a model or shoe are visible in the central image.

Prof Hany Farid speaks out on Artemis II broadcast errors and accusations of the video being staged to @afp.com.

"I hypothesize that the broadcaster didn’t lay down a blue banner on which the text should have been overlaid," Farid said.

https://bit.ly/4sZM1f3

Promotional image for the UC Berkeley School of Information Seattle Alumni Chapter Launch. Includes an illustration of the Space Needle, buildings, clouds, and an airplane. Event details: Thursday, May 28, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm.

🚨Calling all Seattle alums!🚨

We're heading your way for our next alumni group launch!

Come join us Thursday, May 28 from 6 - 8 pm to meet fellow alums in the area!

📍 The Nest, 110 Stewart St., Seattle, WA

www.ischool.berkeley.edu/events/2026/seattle-i-sc...

Column | The Trump presidential library would be a giant tower of grift An AI-generated video, with glitches, suggests the president will be raising billions of dollars for a new Trump tower.

@washingtonpost.com featured Prof. Hany Farid in an article where he confirmed that portions of video released of Donald Trump's library were AI-generated. He noted that the AI edited video might be used as a fundraising tool and not reliable evidence of what will actually be built.

Two Berkeley Ph.D. Students Selected for Oxford-Berkeley Summer Doctoral Program Lauren Chambers and Janiya Peters, two Ph.D. students at the UC Berkeley School of Information, have been selected as part of this year’s cohort for the Oxford-Berkeley Summer Doctoral Program (SDP).

I School Ph.D. students Janiya Peters and @laurenmarietta.bsky.social have been selected for the Oxford-Berkeley Summer Doctoral Program and were awarded scholarships for the program from the I School and @bcnm.bsky.social.

The pair will join other doctoral scholars at Oxford this summer.

Cybersecurity Spring 2026 Capstone Project Showcase Apr 15, 2026, 4:00 pm - Graduating MICS students present their cybersecurity projects. A panel of judges will select an outstanding project for the Lily L. Chang MICS Capstone Award.

Join us tomorrow from 4 - 6:30 pm for the MICS Capstone Showcase!

Cybersecurity students will propose and select project ideas, conduct and communicate their work, receive and provide feedback, and deliver compelling presentations.

📍 Online

Image of UC Berkeley School of Information merchandise, including a gray beanie, navy cap, yellow T-shirt, black and navy jackets, and a gray sweatshirt. Each item features the school's logo.

I School Swag is Back! 📣

Show your I School pride with our BRAND NEW official gear featuring tee shirts, a crewneck sweatshirt, a jacket, an Eddie Bauer vest, a cap, and a beanie.

The store closes on April 26, 2026!
stores.inksoft.com/uc_berkeley_school_of_in...

Republicans fooled by AI-generated image of US airman rescued in Iran Fake image of crew member surrounded by smiling military members has been reshared more than 21,000 times on X

@theguardian.com features Prof. Hany Farid speaking on an AI-generated image of a US Airman being rescued in Iran.

“Details can get mistaken or altered in a way that is dangerous in these very volatile situations,” Hany Farid.

Making AI More Human Making AI More Human: An interview with Berkeley researcher and author Nina Begus about her new book and proposal to fuse science and the humanities

@ninabegus.bsky.social featured on Nautilus speaks about her upcoming book Artificial Humanities: A Fictional Perspective on Language in AI.

"We mold AI with our cultural imaginaries..There are so many other ways to imagine, build, and use AI," she says.

Global Public Interest Tech Leader Vera Zakem to Deliver 2026 Commencement Address The AI Policy and Digital Democracy Leader Will Address I School Graduates at the May 19 Ceremony.

Vera Zakem will deliver the commencement address at the School of Information's 2026 Commencement on May 19. 🎓

A leader in AI policy, digital democracy, and public interest tech, she has spent her career ensuring technology serves people everywhere. https://bit.ly/4cvFOS5

How claims of Netanyahu's death spread on social media Over several days, social media users stoked rumors that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was dead. The narrative was fueled by out of context videos, fake images and accusations that the Israeli government used artificial intelligence to deceive.

Hany Farid confirms that rumors of Netanyahu's death are false using AI analysis.

He told @politifact.bsky.social that he found no signs of photo manipulation in footage of him visiting a coffee shop.

www.politifact.com/article/2026/mar/17/neta...

Writing With and Beyond AI: Fieldnotes from Computer-Mediated Poetry Apr 10, 2026, 12:15 pm - Large language models can make writing mind-numbingly efficient — but the point of writing with AI should be to write what we couldn’t have written alone (without generating b...

🚨TALK ALERT🚨

@uconn.bsky.social Professor Kyle Booten delves into how the field of cultural analytics might be put to work in the war against AI slop. w/ @ucbids.bsky.social

📅 April 10, 12:15 - 1:30 pm
📍 210 South Hall & Online

Join us for a Bellwether Lecture tomorrow! 🔔

University of Michigan School of Information Assistant Prof. azjacobs.bsky.social will discuss structure, governance, and inequality in sociotechnical systems & hidden assumptions in machine learning.

📅 April 8, 12:10-1:30 pm
📍 210 South Hall & Online

Video of child crying over fallen soldier is AI-generated Thirteen American service members have died in the Iran war. AI-generated videos of toddlers crying over flag-draped coffins are going viral.

Prof Hany Farid on @politifact.bsky.social debunks video showing toddler crying over casket to be false.

"At exactly 10-seconds in length, this is typical of AI-generated videos that max out at 10- to 15-seconds in length," said Hany Farid.

https://bit.ly/3PG9y5W

Deirdre Mulligan and Other UC Experts Testify at Hearing to Discuss Californian’s Privacy in the Age of Mass Surveillance On Tuesday, March 3, 2026, Deirdre K. Mulligan, professor in the UC Berkeley School of Information, testified at an informational hearing before the California State Assembly Committee on Privacy and ...

In March, Prof. Deirdre Mulligan testified at an informational hearing before the California State Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection.

She joined other panelists from the UC system to discuss surveillance by private and public sectors.

The Hidden Governance of AI and Other Threats to Democracy Apr 8, 2026, 12:10 pm - Abigail Jacobs researches structure, governance, and inequality in sociotechnical systems and the hidden assumptions in machine learning.

Join us for a Bellwether Lecture! 🔔

University of Michigan School of Information Assistant Professor azjacobs.bsky.social will discuss structure, governance, and inequality in sociotechnical systems & hidden assumptions in machine learning.

📅 April 8, 12:10-1:30 pm
📍 210 South Hall & Online

How AI images are impacting the war with Iran | CNN Israel's Prime Minister appearing in a new video to prove he's alive and unhurt after a clip seeming to show him with six fingers went viral. CNN News Central's Kate Bolduan speaks with Hany Farid, co-founder & chief science officer at GetReal Security,...

Prof. Hany Farid speaks with Kate Bolduan on @cnn.com regarding an image of Israel's Prime Minister appearing with six fingers. The two discuss how AI is impacting the Iran conflict.

www.cnn.com/2026/03/16/us/video/how-...

Send This to Your Boomer Parents: Avoid AI Scams With 1 Trick From a Deepfake Expert From voice cloning to spoofed calls, AI scams are on the rise. Here's how to protect your loved ones with one simple strategy.

As deepfakes become more common, Prof. Hany Farid gives tips on how to avoid AI scams. He recommends tactics such as creating family code words and calling back known numbers.

“You’re not going to detect your way out of this,” Farid tells The Today Show on NBC.

https://on.today.com/4m4VWgA

OpenAI Closing Its One-Stop AI Slop Shop Sora Is a Cautionary Tale There are lessons to be learned from Sora's downfall for the technology sector and its multitrillion-dollar AI behemoths, write Sarah Barrington and Hany Farid.

Ph.D. candidate Sarah Barrington & Prof. Hany Farid published a piece in @techpolicypress.bsky.social about OpenAI's Sora closure and what it means.

"Sora’s demise proves that a pure AI-slop feed is not only bad for the public, but bad for the bottom line," they wrote.

Republicans release AI deepfake of James Talarico as phony videos proliferate in midterm races | CNN Politics Senate Republicans released an online ad this week in which a real-looking but fake version of a Democratic candidate, fabricated with artificial intelligence, appears to speak directly into the camer...

Senate Republicans released an online ad in which an AI-generated version of a Democratic candidate appears to speak directly into the camera.

"I don’t think that the campaigns or candidates should be opening this Pandora’s box," said Prof. Hany Farid to @cnn.com.

AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity

After the recent bombing of an Iranian school, fingers pointed at AI. However, it was found that the location had not been updated in the DIA database as a school.

@theguardian.com referenced Prof. Morgan Ames's Charisma Machine to discuss the blame on AI.

OpenAI's Sora app may be going away, but its legacy will be the spread of AI video slop Barely six months after its launch, OpenAI is ending an app that could generate AI video at the click of a button.

On an @npr.org podcast episode, Prof. Hany Farid reflected on the news that OpenAI's Sora app was going away, specifically on its legacy.

"Every single video, every image, everything is now in doubt," said Farid.

'It's Personality Theft': How Creators Are Fighting Back Against AI Deepfakes As artificial intelligence becomes more accessible, creators are finding replicas of themselves promoting companies they've never even heard of.

Influencers are increasingly finding deepfaked videos of themselves online advertising services they never used.

"Anybody can create an avatar of you, and then anybody can monetize that,” said Prof. Hany Farid to @rollingstone.com.

Video appears to show U.S. Tomahawk hit naval base near Iranian school The video is the latest indication of likely U.S. involvement in the attack on Feb. 28 that killed dozens of children in the southern Iranian city of Minab.

Prof. Hany Farid confirmed the validity of videos showing U.S. Tomahawk hitting the Naval Base near an Iranian school speaking with @washingtonpost.com.

He plotted out the path of the missile in the video and found the projectile had a straight trajectory, which would be tricky to fake.

New York I School Alumni Chapter Launch Apr 15, 2026, 6:00 pm - Connect with fellow alumni, grab a beverage, and celebrate the launch of the I School’s New York alumni chapter.

Calling all NYC alums!

In case you haven't heard, our next alumni group launch is in the Big Apple! 🍎

Come join us Wednesday, April 15 @ Hide Rooftop from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm to meet fellow alums in the area and say hi to I School staff!

OPM revives defunct gov tech efforts with Tech Force hires | Federal News Network The good news is we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We can look to the successful initiatives that punched way above their weight," Lauren Chambers said.

Ph.D. candidate @laurenmarietta.bsky.social spoke to @federalnewsnetwork.com about OPM tech force effects.

"The good news is we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We can look to the successful initiatives that punched way above their weight," Chambers said.

https://bit.ly/4bjeDJR

On 'Settle In,' Hany Farid and Amna Nawaz discuss spotting manipulated images On the latest episode of our video podcast, "Settle In," Amna Nawaz spoke to pioneering digital forensic expert Hany Farid. They discussed why disinformation spreads online, how to find reliable sources of information and why he's still hopeful about ou...

Prof Hany Farid is featured on @pbs.org video podcast "Settle In" discussing AI photo manipulation.

"It will take fighting back against massive, massive global corporate interests. But I don't know what the other option is," he says.

https://to.pbs.org/3NLdUIc

Lawmakers Tackle Surveillance and Privacy Issues Lawmakers in California are addressing the challenges of safeguarding privacy amid rapid technological advancements in surveillance.

Prof. Deirdre Mulligan was featured on State Affairs commenting on the misusage of California privacy laws.

“Surveillance has become a background condition of everyday life rather than an episodic event,” Mulligan said.

https://bit.ly/4byb8hp

AI allows hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, study finds New research suggests tech behind AI platforms such as ChatGPT makes it easier to perform sophisticated privacy attacks

Prof. Marti Hearst explains LLM limitations and possibilities discussing AI in social media to @theguardian.com

“They can only link across platforms where someone consistently shares the same bits of information in both places,” she said.

https://bit.ly/47aWafT