An AI-generated image depicting a fake Hollywood sign on fire. Even with “Hollywood” spelled wrong, the image created panic as it spread across social media. @WTP_REPORT/Annotation by NPR
@WTP_REPORT/Annotation by NPR
As news spread of fast-growing fires in Los Angeles last week, bogus images magnified the terror: The first fakes, some generated by AI, popped up on platforms like X and TikTok “within 24 hours,” says Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Many fakes purported to show the Hollywood sign — the most famous symbol of LA, standing for more than 100 years — covered in