After Reuters, Associated Press, AFP and Getty “killed” Kensington Palace’s “Mother’s Day photo” of the Princess of Wales, everyone said we were in a brave new world when it comes to the lack of credibility and trust in palace-issued photos, videos and information. One week later, Kensington Palace once again tried to pass off questionable “proof of life” media, in the form of a very strange bystander video published by The Sun and TMZ, of “Kate and William” leaving the Windsor Farm Shop. That blew up and created even more conspiracies and chatter.

Then, last Friday, KP released Kate’s bench video, where she spoke to camera about having cancer and starting a round of chemotherapy. Shockingly, perhaps, the video was taken at face value by mainstream media, as if the previous weeks of shenanigans were all washed clean. That being said, social media was a different story. Last weekend, people studied the cancer-announcement video like it was the latest Zupruder film. Theories abound about whether it was an AI deepfake, or whether a greenscreen was involved, or whether the audio was edited. The video was apparently filmed by a crew from BBC Studios (not BBC News), and the BBC will only confirm that they filmed it. Beyond that, the BBC hasn’t answered any questions on the record about whether there were edits or whether other manipulations (green screen, filters) were also employed. Well, the Washington Post had a pretty evenly-reported story about the social media conversations and conspiracies: “Princess Catherine cancer video spawns fresh round of AI conspiracies.” Some highlights:

Social media investigators: When Catherine, Princess of Wales, released a video statement last week sharing that she had been diagnosed with cancer, some users on social media said they regretted engaging in wild speculation about her prolonged public absence. But others jumped immediately to a new conspiracy: The video was generated by artificial intelligence. Users on TikTok, X and Facebook shared videos pointing out alleged AI breadcrumbs, such as a ring disappearing and reappearing on Catherine’s hand. Others said her hair moves unnaturally, or that the bed of daffodils in the background is suspiciously still.

WaPo got KP on the record: BBC Studios, a TV production arm of the BBC, has confirmed that it filmed the video of Catherine’s message last week at Windsor Castle, and Kensington Palace told The Washington Post that accusations of AI tampering are “factually inaccurate.” Multiple deepfake forensics experts agreed, saying they examined the video and found no signs of AI manipulation. “All of these armchair forensic analysts out there that are claiming that they find evidence of AI manipulation, it’s a spectacular combination of ignorance and arrogance,” said Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in analyzing digital images. Farid said he reviewed the video and found “absolutely zero evidence” that AI was involved.

TikTok is discouraging the conspiracies: Earlier this week, TikTok appeared to be funneling users away from searches related to such allegations. A search for “Kate Middleton cancer ai” instead showed results for “Kate Middleton cancer.” The user then had the option to proceed to results for the original search. TikTok declined to comment.

The deepfake theory: Wael Abd-Almageed, a professor of AI at Clemson University who develops deepfake detection software, said he and a student ran the video through their detector and found no indications of AI content. Abd-Almageed slowed the video down to examine it manually, again finding no evidence of AI tampering. If details such as her ring appear fuzzy, he said, it’s because of motion blur and the video’s compression. Another expert, Hao Li, CEO and co-founder of generative AI video-effects company Pinscreen, agreed that the video appears to be authentic, noting the bugs that fly in front of Catherine’s face and the subtle swaying of yellow flowers in the background.

Another AI expert: Only one AI expert contacted by The Post offered support for the suspicions: Deepfake detection start-up Deep Media, which has contracts with the Pentagon, said it found a “high likelihood” that Catherine’s voice and face were manipulated with AI. But other experts — including Farid, Abd-Almageed and Claire Wardle, co-founder and co-director of the Information Futures Lab at Brown University — reviewed Deep Media’s findings at The Post’s request and said they found the results unconvincing.

A suggestion for shutting down conspiracists: Given that even disinformation experts now find it challenging to assess the authenticity of online content, Brown’s Wardle urged institutions such as Kensington Palace and the BBC to do more to publicly validate the images they share before online conspiracies gain traction. The continuing conjecture around Catherine underscores the difficulty of assessing what’s real in an AI-enabled media landscape, she said — as well as the risks of relying on deepfake detectors to separate fact from fiction. “Most people don’t have access to tools that do this kind of analysis,” Wardle said. “And even people who are saying they have these tools, they’re absolutely not 100 percent certain by any means.”

[From WaPo]

“Brown’s Wardle urged institutions such as Kensington Palace and the BBC to do more to publicly validate the images they share before online conspiracies gain traction.” This is what I said days ago – it was a good sign that the BBC was brought in to film Kate’s message and the hope was that the BBC would do more to lend THEIR credibility to a credibility-challenged palace which had just been involved in multiple faked/questionable photos/videos, not to mention the weeks of lies from palace sources. Instead, the BBC is being squirrelly about what was done to the video and only unnamed “BBC sources” will say that the footage hasn’t been tampered with. We’re way past the moment when we could take the palace’s word that everything we’re seeing is legitimate and above-board (although I appreciate the fact that WaPo got the palace to say, lol, that the deepfake allegations are “factually inaccurate”). There should have been – and there still should be – more of an effort to validate the videos and photos released by all of the palaces from here on out.

Screencaps from KP video.