LA’s wildfires prompted a rash of fake images. Here’s why

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

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