People are struggling to separate Google's new video AI from real life

Metro

23-05-2025

Google's new AI software is becoming a 'tedious burden' for content creators, with viewers struggling to tell the difference between fake videos and real life.
AI generated clips made by the new cutting-edge tool Veo 3 can include dialogue for the first time to create realistic videos from street interviews that never happened, to fake stand-up comedy shows.
The tech has even been used to 'resurrect' Greek mathematician Pythagoras to explain his famous theorem in front of a fake Parthenon.
But while seasoned experts can tell the video is faked, the majority of the fast-scrolling public may notice little difference between a deepfaked clip and a genuine one.
Californian creator Ari Kuschnir experimented with the Veo 3, which uses Google's filmmaking tool Flow.
He wrote on Instagram : 'AI can Talk! I spent 2 hours playing with Veo 3 @googledeepmind and it blew my mind now that it can do sound! This is all Generative AI text to video out of the box… it comes with dialogue, sound design and music.'
In another example of how the software could be used in minutes, one creator uploaded a video of a news broadcaster appearing to read out a story about how Buckingham Palace had been taken over by an army of cats.
The faked clip shows an English-accented newsreader as he informs his audience: 'Breaking news: A Scottish bald cat named Big White has led an army of felines to seize Buckingham Palace, declaring itself the new King of Britain.'
Another generated video showed a female newsreader appearing to announce that bestselling author J K Rowling had sunk on a yacht attacked by orcas.
The clipped female presenter is shown saying: 'In shocking news, JK Rowling's yacht sank with her onboard after being attacked by orcas off the coast of Turkey.'
The cutting-edge AI technology has also been used to create musical performances.
One uploaded to YouTube by AI creative Jerrod Lew showed Google's tool used to create a series of musicians, from an opera soprano in front of an orchestra to a rock band appearing to perform live on stage in front of a wild crowd.
One user commented: 'The internet is going to be even bigger wasteland than it is now. The fact that it takes just a few seconds to create these clips with a few words is insane.
'We already lived through the era of TikTok brain rot, the doom scrolling, and this will advance it even more. Can't imagine where the internet space will be in 5 years or less.'
But YouTubers are concerned that the new tech is allowing copycats to effortlessly plagiarise their work.
Mark Brown is behind the channel Game Maker's Toolkit and produces clips on video game design for his 1.65 million subscribers.
This week, his voice was stolen using AI and reused to narrate a clip on another anonymous channel.
He explained that while YouTube has systems to detect traditional plagiarism, AI has made it easier to lift content without the author even knowing.
Instead, the platform relies on viewers realising content has been stolen and reporting copycats, which Mark says have become a 'tedious burden' for creators.
He told the Metro: 'In this case the only way to know that someone had trained an AI on my voice and then used that to narrate a video, was for someone to find and watch it, realise it sounded suspiciously like me, and then send the link to me so I could report it to YouTube.
'Right now it's effortless to impersonate someone but almost impossible to detect it.'
AI or Artificial Intelligence involves computer systems performing tasks usually done by a human, such as decision-making and reasoning.
AI is trained using machine learning, which enables it to understand complex concepts such as multiple outcomes and probabilities.
Natural language processing allows computers to also understand and then manipulate human language.
The technology is increasingly being rolled out to replace many administrative functions and jobs normally carried out by human workers.
Source: NASA
'But beyond that, it's just a very strange, invasive and quite creepy thing to have happened. My voice is a very fundamental part of who I am – and not something I was expecting another person to steal!'
While cheap use of AI to imitate work is concerning, Mark believes there will still be a market for human-produced content.
He added: 'This video received over 60,000 views, some amount of advertising income, and was high in search results for the topic. So it's pretty concerning that this easily generated slop content is pushing out stuff made by humans.
'However, I do believe that there will always be an audience for human-made content, made with effort and heart. And I think YouTube is showing that it doesn't want this sort of content on its site.
'So hopefully real content will win out in the end. But right now there is a serious technical imbalance between making this stuff and detecting it.'
It comes as the Government has come under fire after unveiling plans to exempt tech firms from copyright laws.
Sir Elton John said he felt 'betrayed' by ministers, who are on track to 'rob young people of their legacy and their income', who he said wouldn't have the resources to fight tech giants.
He told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that ministers were being 'absolute losers and I'm very angry about it'.
Google unveiled its latest wave of updates on Tuesday, including 'AI Mode', which rolled out across the US this week, and new additions to its Gemini virtual assistant.
At its developer conference in California, the tech giant also unleashed its new real-time translation software.
Google's latest AI features include: AI Mode for searches- available only in the US
A 'try it on' feature for online shopping
Google Veo 3 – creates realistic videos with fake characters and dialogue
Gemini Live – point your phone at an item and talk to an AI assistant about it
New smart replies on Gmail
It showed how AI could now be used, for example, to help a tourist book accommodation in Mexico by translating their sentences into Spanish and even imitating their accent to match. More Trending
Online shoppers will also be able to make use of a new 'try it on' feature. By uploading a picture of themselves, consumers will be able to see how they look in a range of clothes.
The technology is so intuitive that it understands how a range of fabrics and materials fold, stretch and drape on different bodies.
And, in another huge innovation, once they've found the perfect garment, shoppers can use a new price-tracking feature that will purchase the product once it is reduced.
Customers can enter their budget, and the AI wizardry will buy the item for them once it reaches the desired price.
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