Associated Incidents
Kate Garraway has revealed the impact of being the victim of AI-created deepfake images after she was put beside a fictitious partner. The Good Morning Britain presenter, 58, lost her husband Derek Draper two years ago after a long health battle following a Covid diagnosis.
And while she admits she initially laughed off the fake images, she quickly realised how upsetting they were to her and Derek's two kids. She claimed people have been incorrectly congratulating her on her alleged new relationship for over a year. The presenter said she had to take calls from friends as well as be stopped in the street. And she says it is all because of artificial intelligence creating something that didn't exist - and making people believe it was the truth.
Kate admitted she was naive at first and thought the timing of questions was just an accident. She also confessed she thought it was touching to see people cared for her and her family.
However, she said she'd seen that there was more to it, after the intial laughing off of the whole thing when the imagined match-ups were co-stars and friends including Richard Arnold or Ben Shephard. She wrote in The Sun. that "we laughed it off".
However, she added: "The turning point for me was when I became aware of the impact it might have on my children and Derek's family, too. A headline popped up, sent to me by an algorithm I assume, saying: 'Everything you need to know about Kate Garraway's new boyfriend'."
Kate said she was "flabbergasted and intrigued" to find out more about the new man in her life who didn't actually exist. But it was one detail that claimed her son was not happy and wanted his mum to end her "relationship" that Kate said "stopped me cold".
She fumed that her 16-year-old son had already had enough to deal with without reports claiming he was being obstructive of his mum's happiness. Kate insisted he is "the opposite of that".
The presenter said it was this moment that made her worry and set her mum instinct into play. And she said the instance had left her worrying about how we can trust what we are seeing anymore due to the rapid rise of AI's capabilities.
"When everything can be faked, proof starts to lose its meaning," she said. And Kate said that if the trust is eroded, then it makes it extremely hard to get it back.
She urged for the world to slow down and actually question what they are seeing. By doing this, Kate says we can teach our children that scepticism isn't cynicism, but instead is a vital skill.