Axios Whiffs as it Debunks Flag Claim with A.I. ‘Proof’

 
Brad Slager
Opinion

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As the encroachment of A.I. into so many aspects of our media and culture expands, the challenges for the press continue. The stories regarding outlets being duped by artificial intelligence-generated images or resorting to its use only to be upended by “hallucinated” content keep arriving. Axios just became the latest victim.

The tech source CNET once bragged it was going to use A.I. for select content and the flaws led to it being delisted by Wikipedia. The Chicago Sun-Times published a summer book reading list that featured a collection of titles that do not exist. The Washington Post tried to roll out an A.I.-generated vertical that was so flawed it became an in-house laughable fiasco.

My favorite was when author Steven Rosenbaum had his book “The Future of Truth” released, and it was discovered that portions of the work had been generated by A.I. What made this particularly bothersome is that the focus of his book was the encroachment of A.I. in our society. (Classically, he declared that being ensnared in this fashion only made his contentions all the more valid.)

Which brings us to Axios, and some current reporting that took place. It revolved around a rather small election story, but in its insistence on making it a partisan hit, the outlet covered the supposed bias and then became tripped up by its own desires.

The item revolves around a politician running for office in Oregon. Nafisa Fai is running for a commission seat in Washington County, Oregon – so naturally she was campaigning in Minnesota. During her speech in Somali, she stood in front of the American flag displayed upside down.

(This appears to be something of a trend in that state. When Amy Klobuchar was campaigning recently, she was handed one such flipped flag that others in the crowd were also waving.)

As the clip of the speech by Fai went viral on October 15, the press jumped to the rescue. Axios detailed for readers that the video had been altered and announced it was an A.I. “deep fake” version of the candidate’s appearance. That the clip was shared by the MAGA Xitter account End Wokeness surely contributed to the belief that this had been a fabricated visual.

Axios explained the deception thusly:

A doctored video of Washington County chair candidate Nafisa Fai speaking in front of an upside-down American flag went viral last week, sparking outrage on social media and leading to calls for her deportation.

In its report, Axios provided images showing the flag being displayed correctly. The claim was that the false images were produced to make the candidate appear in a poor light.

But then Axios completely spiked that report. A couple of issues emerged. It turned out that the speaking engagement with Fai had been recorded and broadcast, and what would you know – there was the inverted national symbol on camera.

As it was explained, Axios skirted responsibility by indicating they had learned of the “correct” photos from The Oregon Journalism Project. That outfit had been provided the new images from…you can guess…the Fai campaign.

But then even this detail became contested.

The OJP says that they have taken down the article about the A.I. fakery because it learned that the subsequent video they were provided by the campaign turned out to be what had been digitally manipulated.

Then, in a follow-up report that passed the blame, Axios cited the retraction by OJP, and then went on to say that the candidate was not responsible for the deception.

The now-deleted OJP article featured a screenshot of Fai with the flag right side up. It said the image was provided by the candidate, which OJP later told Axios was incorrectly credited and was actually “from a supporter known to her.”

Axios also states that the candidate’s camp has since come out and said they were not the ones who supplied the Oregon Journalism Project with the fake video images, even though it was said to have received the video when interviewing Fai after the event and the controversy. This is basically proven false…by the candidate herself.

In a social media post from Fai on this matter, posted on October 19, she cites the A.I. fakery. She posted the headline of the report, and in the cover photo credit of the image declares it was “Provided by Nafisa Fai.”

We are basically dealing with the Telephone Game regarding the passing of accountability. Axios blames the OJP, the OJP says “nuh-uh, they told us,” the Fai campaign claims a supporter gave the outlet the A.I. video, and everyone comes off looking like partisan political prevaricators in the process.

The irony of it all is that the account that was originally called the liar was the only source that was on the proper path to the truth. Just magnificent journalism on display all around!

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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