Twitter is currently conducting trials on a new function called Community Notes designed to enhance the identification of potentially misleading media, as AI-generated images and videos become more prevalent on the platform. This feature utilizes crowd-sourced fact checks from the community to provide additional context to specific photos and video clips.
Community Notes allows contributors with high ratings to apply annotations to images shared within tweets. Similar to notes on tweets, these labels can offer information such as whether a photo was created using generative AI or if it has been manipulated in any way.
One of the aims of this feature is to address the rapid dissemination of such photos. Twitter intends for the notes to automatically appear on subsequent copies of the same image, even if they are shared by different users in new tweets.
However, the company acknowledges that perfecting the image matching process will take time. Twitter aims to prioritize precision when identifying matches, which means not every image resembling a match will be flagged. They plan to refine this process to expand coverage while minimizing false matches.
It is important to note that the track record of Community Notes is not flawless. Although the feature can sometimes provide nuanced fact checks and debunk false claims, contributors themselves have acknowledged that it is not immune to errors or the perpetuation of common misconceptions.
From AI-generated images to manipulated videos, it’s common to come across misleading media. Today we’re piloting a feature that puts a superpower into contributors’ hands: Notes on Media
Notes attached to an image will automatically appear on recent & future matching images. pic.twitter.com/89mxYU2Kir
— Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) May 30, 2023
Currently, Twitter is testing notes for media on tweets containing a single image. However, they have expressed intentions to extend this feature to tweets with multiple images and videos in the future.
Twitter is not the only platform grappling with the challenges posed by the rise of generative AI and the spread of misinformation. Google has recently introduced features that enable users to track the history of an image in search results, which can aid in determining whether a photo has been altered.
