Media authenticity analysis · synthetic media era
Paste a YouTube URL to read its authenticity indicators, manipulation signals, and AI signal score — from the public record, not a guess.
Why this exists
AI-generated video, cloned voices, and deepfakes are now ordinary. The hard part is no longer making them — it is knowing what to believe. People increasingly cannot tell, and they know it.
10×
Deepfake incidents surged tenfold from 2022 to 2023.
The volume of detected deepfakes is no longer a fringe problem. It is a mainstream content category.
Sumsub, 202359%
of people worldwide worry about telling real from fake news online.
In the United States that figure rises to 72%. Doubt is now the default posture toward online media.
Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 202455.5%
Human accuracy at spotting deepfakes is barely better than a coin flip.
A meta-analysis of 56 studies found training improved detection by less than four points. Eyes alone are not enough.
Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 202457%
of U.S. adults feared AI-generated misinformation in the 2024 election.
Synthetic media has moved from novelty to a recognized threat to shared reality.
Pew Research Center, 2024$25.6M
stolen in a single deepfake video-call scam at one firm.
An employee wired the funds after a meeting with synthetic versions of real colleagues. The cost of misplaced trust is concrete.
CNN Business, 20243,700+
organizations now back content-provenance standards.
The Content Authenticity Initiative — joined by OpenAI in 2024 — signals that provenance is becoming infrastructure.
Content Authenticity Initiative, 2024Trust signals analysis
Authenticity is not one signal. It is a pattern. The free analysis reads the signals that are publicly observable in a video's text and audience. The deeper, frame-level read is a human-reviewed evaluation. We never pretend the two are the same.
Named AI video, voice, and animation generators referenced in the title, description, or tags.
In the free readHow many top comments independently flag a clip as AI, fake, deepfake, or manipulated.
In the free readCreator disclosures, synthetic-content labels, publication context, and provenance limitations.
In the free readThe channel behind the clip and the context in which it was published and shared.
In the free readWhether a speaker's voice shows signs of cloning, splicing, or synthetic generation.
Deeper analysisFrame-level artifacts, lighting and anatomy anomalies, and tell-tale generation patterns.
Deeper analysisCuts, re-timing, and compositing patterns that indicate manipulation rather than capture.
Deeper analysisA synthesized judgment across every signal, reviewed by an analyst — never an automated certainty.
Deeper analysisAI video news
A running record of documented synthetic-media events — the dupes, scams, and authenticity controversies shaping how we watch. Curated and sourced; updated regularly.
Tracked sources
The archive is curated from established deepfake and authenticity trackers, the way FortClips curates the best clips. These are the feeds we monitor:
Trust & authenticity essays
Long-form thinking on synthetic media, the psychology of deception, and how authenticity becomes the infrastructure of the next decade.
Psychology of deception
Deception does not just cost us information. It costs us dignity. Understanding that reaction explains why synthetic media provokes such a visceral response — and why authenticity is worth defending.
Read the essay →The future of media trust
When anything can be faked, proof of realness stops being a nicety and becomes load-bearing — like roads, or electricity. A look at the systems being built to carry that weight.
Read the essay →Media, speaking & press
RealOrAiVideo is built and led by Mike Millett, a trust strategist and founder of Digilu. The platform exists to make one idea practical: in an AI world, authenticity is infrastructure.
Available for podcasts, panels, newsroom briefings, and press commentary on synthetic media, deepfakes, AI-generated video, and the future of media trust.
Every inquiry sent here reaches the team directly.
Inquiry
In an AI world, authenticity becomes infrastructure.