【本場活動以英語舉行】 What happens when we can no longer tell whether an image, a voice, or a news story was made by a human? As AI-generated media floods our feeds, the old question — "Is this real?" — is giving way to a harder one: how do we live, decide, and govern when authenticity can no longer be assumed? Drawing on his research on platform governance, public attitudes toward AI, and experiments with AI in the newsroom, Prof. John Wihbey of Northeastern University in Boston, USA, argues that we are entering a "post-authenticity" era — one that is disorienting but also survivable. This lecture explores what individuals, journalists, and democracies can do to rebuild trust in an age of synthetic media.
Speaker bio:
John P. Wihbey is Professor of Media and Communications Technology and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategic AI Initiatives at Northeastern University. He directs the AI-Media Strategies Lab and co-founded the Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy. His research focuses on AI and communication, social media, journalism, public opinion, and digital democracy. He is the author of Governing Babel (2025) and The Social Fact (2019), both published by MIT Press, and has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. His current work includes HuskyAI, a platform supporting AI literacy, workforce readiness, and cognitive integrity.