Design Fiction x AI
About Ploy Pruekcharoen
Story 04
Theme: AI and Misinformation
When: 2040
Where: Middle School
Why: Ethics + Fake Imagery
Narrative:
Tara exited her classroom, totally confused. She had sent students to the principal’s office on occasion, but never had she been called there herself.
“Surely, it’s nothing major,” she thought to herself. “But then again, why would they interrupt my lesson if it wasn’t?” The heels of her boots echoed throughout the empty tiled hallway during what felt like the longest walk of her life. Finally, she arrived at the main office where Greg, the receptionist, sat with his eyes glued to the screen.
“Oh Tara, you’re here. I’ll let Principal O’Malley know that you’re on your way in. I hope everything turns out okay. I’m definitely on your side,” Greg said.
On her side? What was he referring to?
“Greg, what is all of this about?” Tara asked.
“It’s better you hear it from Ash,” he replied.
More confused and concerned than ever, Tara gently tapped on the door to the principal’s office and slowly opened the door.
“Please come in,” Ash gestured, “and have a seat.”
Tara sat down across from Ash’s desk. Rather than staying seated, Ash got up, moved another chair around to the same side of the desk as Tara, sat down again and faced her.
“Tara, we have a serious issue. It has come to my attention that an extremely inappropriate photo of you has been circulating online and several students have gotten their hands on it. I’m afraid that we cannot have this kind of imagery associated with any of our faculty or staff members at this school. We are going to have to take disciplinary action, effective immediately.”
Tara’s head was spinning. “W-what photo?” she managed to stutter. She had no idea what Ash was referring to.
Ash sighed and pulled out her phone. She showed it to Tara. Tara immediately grabbed the phone. Her heart sank.
There it was. A nude photo of her. Except, it wasn’t completely her. The face of the woman looked strikingly similar to Tara’s, but the body definitely belonged to someone else.
“This isn’t me!” she exclaimed while shoving the phone back into Ash’s hands.
“What do you mean? This is your face.”
“I’ve never seen this photo in my life. It’s definitely fake. That’s not even my body!”
“Tara, we have no way to verify whether this is you or not. It’s too realistic! We can open an investigation, but in the meantime, we’ll have to place you on an unpaid leave of absence.”
Tara felt her chest cave in. She couldn’t believe it. Who was sick and twisted enough to create such a damning image of her? An ex? A colleague? A student?
In this day and age, it didn’t matter. Anyone could make fake pictures with the proliferation of AI image generators.