B2 – Upper Intermediate
Photos, videos, and audio recordings used to feel like reliable evidence. Today, that trust is being challenged as digital content becomes easier to manipulate and harder to verify. From fake social media profiles to AI-generated videos, misinformation can spread quickly and influence how people think, vote, and react to world events.
Watch the video below to learn how deepfakes work, why they are so convincing, and why they pose a serious challenge to our shared understanding of reality.
Vocabulary Questions
- What does “carpet-bomb” mean in the sentence, “I can carpet-bomb the internet with these things”? Use it in a sentence.
- What does “sow civil unrest” mean in the sentence, “We’ve already seen the first nefarious uses of that technology in the creation of fake profiles on Twitter, on YouTube, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn to either start to promote fake news, to sow civil unrest, to commit fraud”? Use it in a sentence.
- What does “whole cloth” mean in the sentence, “You are synthesizing whole cloth”? Use it in a sentence.
Discussion Questions
- Do you think people trust online images and videos too easily? Why or why not?
- Have you ever seen a photo or video online that later turned out to be fake or misleading?
- Why do you think social media makes it easier for misinformation to spread?
- Should technology companies be more responsible for stopping fake content online? Why or why not?
- What can individuals do to be more careful when consuming news on social media?