The forensic heatmap supposedly exposing a photo as fake? Also fake. Forensic cosplay to create doubt about real photos. (shirin anlen, Mahsa Alimardani, Tech Policy Press)
- In the Iran-Israel-US war, actors are using fabricated heatmaps, misapplied forensic tools like normal map renders, and ChatGPT outputs dressed as analysis to falsely label authentic photojournalism as AI-generated.
- Two documented cases show the tactic in action: a wire-service photographer's images from a Tehran strike discredited by fake heatmaps, and a New York Times crowd photo targeted with Error Level Analysis run on a screenshot of an Instagram post rather than the original file.
- The practical problem for journalists is that false "forensic" verdicts spread faster than corrections, and most audiences have no baseline for what legitimate AI detection output actually looks like.
