This video traces the production of images from military simulations to technical interfaces to identify a new political order produced by synthetic content. Recent debates on the dangers of AI-generated images, or ‘synthetic media’, are gripped by the fear that an image might lose its value as a representation of real events. Investigative journalists and researchers are used to the demand that photos and videos of atrocities must remain verifiable and traceable to their source, even as they break the news, go viral, and fall through the cracks of NDAs. But while some images have had to be smuggled out of conflict zones, others must be carefully reconstructed, composited, or even generated out of pixels alone. Can they be used to hijack the violence as it unfolds?

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