Furore over retouched photo of British princess reveals big problem

At a time when suspicions of media manipulation have reached new levels of concern, the furor over the Princess of Wales photo highlights the sensitivity of image manipulation.

Kate Middleton was the subject of an image-editing scandal in 2011 when a photograph of her was adapted for her wedding day – but that was before breakthroughs in artificial intelligence put everyone on edge, The Guardian writes.

In recent years, there has been a spate of AI-generated deepfakes from videos, including explicit images of singer Taylor Swift. Historical examples of image manipulation may be clumsy – from Argentine footballers clutching bags to Stalin’s missing subordinates – but there is now a worrying reliance on AI-generated content, The Guardian notes.

Kate Middleton’s efforts to correct a family photo amid frenzied speculation on social media about her health have hit widespread concerns about the credibility of images, text and audio in a year when half the world goes to the polls.

“This photograph is a prime example of why 2024 is a critical year for identifying and stopping media manipulation,” says Shweta Singh, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Warwick Business School. – While it may have been some low-level photoshop, much of the edited media circulating currently may be more sinister. With elections in both the UK and US this year, the importance of media being authentic has never been greater. Suspicious photoshopping such as this only undermines the public’s faith in the media they are presented with and risks seriously damaging public trust.”

Michael Green, senior lecturer in digital media at the University of Kent, said the Princess of Wales’s family photograph was “clearly edited at an amateur level” using software such as Adobe Photoshop, although the princess would not confirm what tools she used, admitting on Monday that changed the photo.

Green notes that Princess’s changes “go beyond touch-ups” and represent significant edits, although he adds that the end result highlighted her inexperience with whatever software she was using.

Thanks to online uproar, some of the world’s biggest photo agencies have withdrawn the photo after it was found to be in clear violation of the guidelines. The Associated Press, which published the image, states that the photo “should not be altered in Photoshop or by any other means,” while Agence France-Presse says the photos should not be “manipulated or edited.”

Despite these recommendations, the scandalous photograph was published. Nick Newman, a senior fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, says the Princess of Wales photo incident is a reminder that media outlets will have to more carefully vet all their reporting in an age of high technological sophistication.

He says: “For years, these agencies have really focused on verifying photographs that came from less reliable sources. This is a reminder that we have to be careful with all sources because everyone has these tools now.”

Experts also lined up to rule out the possibility that the photo was generated by artificial intelligence, in a cross-check that is now becoming standard.

“There is no evidence that this image was entirely generated by artificial intelligence,” says Hani Farid, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and an expert in deep fake detection.

Artificial intelligence makes the task of identifying manipulated or fake media even more difficult, not least because of its complexity, but also because of its ability to mass produce compelling content at an alarming rate, The Guardian highlights. Speaking at a tech conference in London on Monday, tech secretary Michelle Donelan acknowledged that in the fight against deep fakes created by artificial intelligence, “there is no single technology solution that is the answer to everything.”

Instead, it will take a patchwork approach to identifying AI-generated misinformation from offenders whose arsenal now includes a variety of tricks.