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Category: Project

Description: Can we trust our eyes? Until recently, we rarely had to question whether what we see is indeed what exists, but this is changing. Artificial neural networks can now generate hyperrealistic images that challenge our perception of what is real. This new reality can have significant implications in cybersecurity, counterfeiting, fake news, and border security. We investigated how the human brain encodes and interprets hyperrealistic artificially generated images using behaviour and brain imaging. We found that we could reliably detect AI-generated fake images using people’s brain activity, even though people could not consciously report seeing differences between real and fake images. Understanding this dissociation between brain and behaviour may be key in determining the 'real' in our new reality.