Bystander video is driving the biggest stories in America. The next era of journalism will be built on verifying it. - Poynter

"At the exact same moment, AI is making that evidence easier to fake and easier to manipulate. The result is a new reality: Journalists must become visual investigators. I produced a realistic doorbell camera video of a similarly masked assailant in a few minutes using the AI video generator Sora. That's a problem. Government officials have repeatedly spun false narratives about these events that don't hold up when real video comes out. That's another problem."

""It's tough that the rise of AI-generated images coincides with the rise of the need for video from the spot," said Anna Boone, digital designer at The Minnesota Star Tribune and a member of the team that analyzed video of Pretti and Good's killing, in a recent livestream. "Everything is going up together and just creating a mass amount of content.""

"The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and the Star Tribune have tackled both issues with visual investigations - using tools and techniques to verify authenticity, debunk AI-generated content and analyze videos frame by frame. Every newsroom now needs this capability. The Star Tribune's work on the Good and Pretti shootings is a case in point. A team of visual journalists deconstructed bystander footage frame by frame, directly contradicting claims made by members of the Trump administration about both killings. Their process was meticulous."

Bystander and surveillance video have driven major news stories, including killings by federal officers in Minneapolis, aggressive ICE operations, a Tufts doctoral student's detention, and a doorbell camera capturing a kidnapping. Video has become a powerful form of evidence while AI simultaneously makes such footage easier to fake and manipulate. Journalists therefore must act as visual investigators, using tools to verify authenticity, debunk AI-generated content, and analyze footage frame by frame. Newsrooms including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and the Star Tribune have developed visual-investigation capabilities. Meticulous frame-by-frame analysis has contradicted false official narratives and clarified events.

Read at Poynter