As generative-AI models make creating, publishing, and circulating synthetic imagery easier and easier, visual journalists need to understand what this tech is and how it works. This session provides an overview of what synthetic imagery is, how it's made, how it's being used, and what we can do to combat the circulation of visual misinformation as media makers invested in authentic representations of our world. Topics discussed include: deep fakes, generative-AI models and prompt practices, content provenance initiatives, current research on gen-AI, environmental impacts of gen-AI, and how to recognize synthetic images. 

Tara Pixley is a queer, Jamaican-American photojournalist whose work frames race, gender, climate futures, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities through a solutions lens. Her clients include Apple, The North Face, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Newsweek, The Atlantic, HuffPost, ProPublica and ESPN, among many others. She is currently a Fulbright Specialist in Visual Media and previously a Reynolds Journalism Fellow; Pulitzer Center Grantee; IWMF NextGen Fellow; World Press Photo Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative grantee; and, a Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard. Tara is Vice President of the NPPA Board, a Board member of stock photo co-op Stocksy United, and Executive Director of Authority Collective—an organization by and for women of color visual storytellers, dedicated to establishing equity in visual media. She is a member of Black Women Photographers. Follow Tara on Instagram at @tlpix