10-17-24

22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY october 17-23 2024 www.montereycountynow.com Monterey County’s new Media Literacy Coalition brings attention to how to discern truth. By Sara Rubin Fact Finding A group of high schoolers is studying the image of a middle-aged man’s face. Their mission is to determine if this is a real photo of a real person, or a product of artificial intelligence. His bald spot looks like a dent—real, or fake? It’s hard to tell. “She has no neck, so she looks scary,” says a student named Lily examining another portrait spread out on the table in front of them. Then she turns to another face: “This guy, I feel, is definitely a fake.” Her Alisal High School classmate Isabella chimes in: “It’s hard! Some people’s eyes are just like that.” The students are trying to be correct in their assessment, but in this case they are also trying to be fast. They are playing a game and competing against dozens of other teams, mostly five or six students each. It’s an escape room concept, although there is no physical room to escape from. Instead, they are tasked with solving one puzzle to unlock a code that takes them to another puzzle. Along the way, they gather bits of information and they are asked to assess: Real or fake? The frustrated group checks in with an adult volunteer, Sheila Robinson, to find out if they’ve succeeded at the photo identification puzzle and can move on. “This is the hardest part,” Robinson offers by way of encouragement before continuing to make her rounds. “The AI is very good.” Groups of students (from Alisal High School, above, and Marina High School, above right) participated in Monterey County’s firstever Misinfo Day on May 7. This escape room activity required students to solve puzzles—including determining which portraits were real versus AI-generated, as shown above—to crack codes and advance to the next clue. Photos by Daniel Dreifuss

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