AI Video Scams

I'll be blunt: this post was prompted by my dad not believing an Instagram video he watched was made by AI. These AI videos are getting scarily real. They're showing up in social feeds, private messages, and could even imitate short "video calls." That moment pushed me to bring it up with our seniors.

An AI video is simply a video created by AI; what's unsettling is what it can contain. These videos can be prompted to show almost anything, simulating a video call from your brother asking for money, generating entire social media clips, or, in the near future, appearing in movies. The scariest part is that these videos are becoming so realistic that some people can't tell they're AI. If this rate of growth continues, I'd estimate that, within about a year, these videos will spark major controversy.

At first, we had no idea how to teach this. How do you tell someone "the video is AI" when it looks real right in front of them? We debated whether we could even explain it, but decided we needed to try. We landed on a couple of ideas: first, show side-by-side comparisons and see if learners can identify the AI video. Then explain there isn't one universal trick to look for: you just do your best. There's no single tell that all AI videos share, but each one usually has some flaw you can spot.

Honestly, these are some of the hardest topics for us to teach at Riolu, because we need to teach our seniors to be cautious without destroying the sense of safety we built during previous lessons. We're showing that calm thinking and intuition are strong counters to most small-scale scams.