Oct 27, 2025

“We’re becoming less informed as information increases”: Hany Farid Analyzes AI-Driven Jamaica Hurricane Hoaxes

From France 24

AI-generated fakes proliferate as Hurricane Melissa nears Jamaica

AFP surfaced dozens of fakes -- most bearing watermarks for OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora -- as Melissa was set to pummel the Caribbean island with violent winds and heavy rains.

The videos depicted a range of fabricated scenarios, from dramatic newscasts and shots of severe flooding to images of sharks in the water as well as poignant scenes of human suffering...

Hany Farid, co-founder of the cybersecurity company GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the hurricane-related AI content underscores how new text-to-video models have “accelerated the spread of convincing fakes.”

The apps allow users to create clips featuring hyper-realistic human likenesses. AFP reached out to OpenAI for comment, but did not get an immediate response.

Many viewers seemed unaware the images were AI-generated, despite the Sora watermark, AFP’s review of the videos’ comment sections found.

“The paradox of the information age is that we are becoming less informed as a public as the amount of information increases,” Farid told AFP...

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Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley. 

Last updated: October 30, 2025