There was a time when we looked at photographs, paintings or videos with confidence, trusting that what we saw was real, that it existed and had happened. Now we no longer have that certainty; in fact, we cannot trust anything! It is very disconcerting and makes me wonder how future generations will be affected, growing up in a distrustful world with no certainties about what they see.
In the words of writer, poet and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe, “all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream”.
Did you know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now generate photos of people who have never existed? I find these deeply disturbing to look at, to stare at the face of ‘someone’ who is not real and never was. It unsettles my mind.
A prime example of the power of AI-generated people occurred in Hong Kong in 2024, when a finance employee at a multinational company received a message to transfer HK$200 million (£20 million). Suspicious, the employee joined a video conference call with the company CFO and several colleagues, who confirmed that the transfer should be made. The employee carried out various separate transactions to different accounts, unaware that none of the people on the call were real as the ‘board members’ had been recreated using AI, based on previous video and voice recordings.
This is known as a ‘deep fake scam’, and there is no evidence that the money was recovered or the scammers caught. These criminals faked reality, made millions from it and this case highlights the dangers of AI.
Although this inability to believe in what we see feels like a modern problem, 574 years ago, on April 15, one of the world’s greatest minds, Leonardo da Vinci, was born. He was ahead of his time in so many ways and was, even back then, already questioning whether what we see can ever be trusted.
Leonardo was a draughtsman, engineer, theorist, sculptor, architect, scientist and painter. Through his paintings, he carefully constructed illusions using light, shadow and perception. An example is seen in the Mona Lisa’s smile, which appears to change depending on the angle from which it is viewed. Leonardo spent much of his life trying to understand reality more clearly, asking what is real and what only appears to be real.
He studied how the eye perceives depth and made observations rather than assumptions, working from the premise that we cannot simply believe what we see, we must also investigate it. I agree with this for if I read something online that I am unsure of, I investigate further using reliable fact-checking websites (Snopes or Factcheck.org), which are good for viral stories, myths and misleading posts. It does drive me mad when people share provoking photographs or videos that are untrue.
Leonardo frequently explored the difference between perception and understanding, emphasising that we observe with our eyes, but our minds interpret what we see. He showed that images can deceive the eye, influence perception and create convincing illusions, so that the viewers trusted what they saw. He understood that interpretation can be guided, influenced and even manipulated and he wrote extensively in his notebooks how humans often misinterpret what they actually see.
In our world today, AI can create entire deceptive situations and interactions. The difference is that, in Leonardo’s time, illusion occurred in a painting, whereas now illusion occurs in real time, where reality is becoming easier to fake with sometimes serious consequences.
Cases like the Hong Kong heist are becoming more common, with increasing numbers of scams, and this has led companies to require verification beyond video calls, because the phrase coined by Thomas Fuller, “seeing is believing”, is no longer reliable.
For centuries, images could be trusted. A photograph was undoubtedly used as trusted evidence, but now we have to doubt everything where visual information no longer guarantees truth. Where Leonardo used paint and techniques to shape perception, we now use algorithms and artificial intelligence to construct images without a subject ever existing.
Across social media, videos and photographs are created, promoting misinformation and fake news which brings us closer to Leonardo’s way of thinking for we can no longer accept appearances at face value. We must test and question them. We should doubt what we see, because it can no longer be taken as truth.
Does this mean we are becoming more cynical and sceptical as we are forced to question everything? I think so. We have to accept that our reality is that what we see is not necessarily real, no matter how convincing it may seem.
I recently saw a video of a man in an interview. He looked real, he joked and moved like a human and answered questions convincingly until the interviewer asked him to hold three fingers in front of his face to prove that he was not AI. The man refused, arguing that the request was unnecessary. They argued back and forth, and the man never did hold up the three fingers in front of his face, and this was taken as proof that he was AI-generated, as he could not comply with the request. It was fascinating and, at the same time, deeply unsettling because he seemed so real.
For centuries, we believed that seeing was proof despite writers and philosophers warning that our senses could mislead us. Leonardo da Vinci showed us that the eye can be deceived. Nowadays, it is the scale and precision with which illusions can be manufactured that is the danger and we should all understand that seeing is no longer believing or a guarantee of the truth.
Happy Birthday, Leonardo!
So now you know!
Read Isobel Costas’s last article: Did you know…You can do anything!
