synthetic media
In plain wordsImages, video, audio or text created or substantially altered by AI rather than recorded or written directly by people, whether for art, entertainment, business or deception.
Media content wholly generated or substantially modified by generative modelsgenerative AI, n.: AI that produces something new on request, such as an essay, a picture, a song or a piece of code, having absorbed from enormous numbers of existing examples what such things typically look like., including synthetic images, video, voices, music and text, and composites that alter real recordings. The category is broader and more neutral than deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened.: it covers dubbing and voice restoration, virtual presenters, film and game effects, accessibility tools, advertising and art, as well as impersonation, fraud, non-consensual imagery and disinformationdisinformation, n.: Deliberate falsehoods or distortions dressed up as fact, for example from a government or campaign trying to sway an election or sow distrust.. Policy responses focus on disclosure and provenance: labeling duties such as Article 50 of the EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models. and China's rules on deep synthesisdeep synthesis, n.: The Chinese legal term for AI that creates or alters text, images, voices, video or virtual scenes — the technology behind deepfakes — and for the rules that govern it. and AI-generated content labelingAI-generated content labeling, n.: Marking text, images, audio or video as made by AI — with a visible notice, hidden data in the file, or both — so that people and platforms can tell synthetic content from real.; invisible watermarksAI watermarking, n.: Hiding an invisible signal in AI-generated text, images, audio or video so that software can later tell the content was made by AI — like a banknote's watermark, but undetectable to the eye. such as SynthIDSynthID, prop. n.: Google's system for hiding an invisible watermark in pictures, video, audio and text made by its AI tools, so they can later be recognized as AI-generated.; and cryptographically signed provenance metadata under the C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) standard, which records how a file was captured and edited.
Every synthetic media asset in the campaign carries a content credential naming the model that made it.
Origin
Common from the late 2010s as a neutral industry and research term for what the press called deepfakes; the earliest use in this sense has not been established. The Partnership on AI's Responsible Practices for Synthetic Media (February 2023) and the EU AI Act's rules on synthetic audio, image, video and text helped standardize it.
Usage note
Usage varies on whether AI-assisted editing, such as retouching or noise removal, counts. Chinese regulation uses 'deep synthesis' and AI-generated content (AIGC) for overlapping categories.
Related
- deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened.
- AI watermarkingAI watermarking, n.: Hiding an invisible signal in AI-generated text, images, audio or video so that software can later tell the content was made by AI — like a banknote's watermark, but undetectable to the eye.
- AI-generated content labelingAI-generated content labeling, n.: Marking text, images, audio or video as made by AI — with a visible notice, hidden data in the file, or both — so that people and platforms can tell synthetic content from real.
- deep synthesisdeep synthesis, n.: The Chinese legal term for AI that creates or alters text, images, voices, video or virtual scenes — the technology behind deepfakes — and for the rules that govern it.
- voice cloningvoice cloning, n.: Using AI to copy a specific person's voice from recordings, so a computer can say new things that sound like them — useful for dubbing and accessibility, and abused in scams.
- AI slopAI slop, n.: Low-quality content churned out in bulk by AI — bland articles, fake-looking images, filler videos — posted to grab clicks or fill space, with little care for accuracy or value.
- liar's dividendliar's dividend, n.: The advantage dishonest people gain once everyone knows fakes are easy to make: they can wave away real evidence against them by claiming it was made by AI.
Sources
- Partnership on AI (2023). PAI's Responsible Practices for Synthetic Media: A Framework for Collective Action.
Mentioned in
AI slopAI slop, n.: Low-quality content churned out in bulk by AI — bland articles, fake-looking images, filler videos — posted to grab clicks or fill space, with little care for accuracy or value., AI watermarkingAI watermarking, n.: Hiding an invisible signal in AI-generated text, images, audio or video so that software can later tell the content was made by AI — like a banknote's watermark, but undetectable to the eye., deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened., generative AIgenerative AI, n.: AI that produces something new on request, such as an essay, a picture, a song or a piece of code, having absorbed from enormous numbers of existing examples what such things typically look like., misinformationmisinformation, n.: False or misleading information that spreads, whether or not the people sharing it know it is wrong. AI can produce it by mistake and makes it cheaper to create., non-consensual intimate imagerynon-consensual intimate imagery, n.: Sexual or nude images of a real person that are shared, or made, without their consent — including fakes created with AI that show someone undressed or in sexual scenes., AI detectorAI detector, n.: Software that scores how likely it is that an AI, not a person, produced some text or media; for writing, its verdicts are wrong often enough that many schools no longer trust them., AI transparencyAI transparency, n.: Openness about AI: telling people when they are dealing with one, how a system was built and tested, and why it reached a particular decision., AI-generated content labelingAI-generated content labeling, n.: Marking text, images, audio or video as made by AI — with a visible notice, hidden data in the file, or both — so that people and platforms can tell synthetic content from real., dead internet theorydead internet theory, n.: The idea, first a fringe conspiracy theory, that much of what we see online is now made by bots and AI rather than by real people., deepfake detectiondeepfake detection, n.: Using software, often itself AI, to tell whether a video, photo or voice recording has been faked or generated by AI rather than captured from reality., digital replicadigital replica, n.: A realistic computer-made copy of a real person's voice or appearance — such as an AI clone of a singer's voice or a digital stand-in for an actor — that can say or do things the person never did., disinformationdisinformation, n.: Deliberate falsehoods or distortions dressed up as fact, for example from a government or campaign trying to sway an election or sow distrust., influence operationinfluence operation, n.: An organized, often secret campaign to sway public opinion — fake accounts posting propaganda, for instance — which AI can make cheaper by writing posts, translating them and inventing fake personas., liar's dividendliar's dividend, n.: The advantage dishonest people gain once everyone knows fakes are easy to make: they can wave away real evidence against them by claiming it was made by AI., nudification appnudification app, n.: An app or AI tool that takes an ordinary photo of a real person and fakes a nude or sexual image of them, almost always without their consent., StyleGANStyleGAN, prop. n.: An image-generating network from NVIDIA, famous for photorealistic faces of people who do not exist, that sets coarse traits such as head angle and face shape separately from fine details such as coloring and skin texture., TAKE IT DOWN ActTAKE IT DOWN Act, prop. n.: A 2025 US federal law that forces websites to remove intimate images of a person posted without consent, including AI-made fakes, within 48 hours of the victim's request, and makes posting them a crime., Balenciaga PopeBalenciaga Pope, prop. n.: A 2023 AI-generated photo of Pope Francis in a stylish white puffer coat that fooled many viewers, becoming a landmark example of how convincing fake images had become., deep synthesisdeep synthesis, n.: The Chinese legal term for AI that creates or alters text, images, voices, video or virtual scenes — the technology behind deepfakes — and for the rules that govern it., GhiblificationGhiblification, n.: The March 2025 craze for turning photos into pictures in the style of Japan's Studio Ghibli using ChatGPT's new image tool, and the debate it sparked over AI copying artists' styles., Heart on My SleeveHeart on My Sleeve, prop. n.: A 2023 song that used AI to imitate the voices of Drake and The Weeknd without their involvement; it went viral before being pulled, becoming a landmark case for AI voice cloning in music., Italian brainrotItalian brainrot, n.: A 2025 internet craze of absurd AI-generated creatures with fake-Italian names — such as a shark wearing sneakers — narrated by AI voices and hugely popular with young children., Partnership on AIPartnership on AI, prop. n.: A forum, set up by big technology companies in 2016 and later joined by universities, charities and news organizations, that drafts voluntary guidelines for building and using AI responsibly.