“It is important that the public has trust and confidence in reliable and accurate emergency information channels,” it said.

“In an emergency, our primary channel to get information out to the public is the media.”

Nema worked closely with the media to ensure they provide verified, credible information to the public, it said.

“We encourage people to be vigilant, use trusted sources for their information, and find out if the source of information is credible before sharing it.

“We closely monitor what is being circulated during a response but we would encourage New Zealanders to call out suspicious images when they see them, or report them if there is a suitable way to do this.”

AI expert: ‘Check your sources’

Victoria University senior lecturer in AI, Dr Andrew Lensen, believed it was the first time AI images of a disaster in New Zealand had circulated online.

“But, and I always hate to say this, I’m not surprised,” he said.

“We’ve seen a lot of AI being used for all sorts of … image and video generation over the past year or so, most notably in things like politics, but I think disasters are unfortunately the sort of the next cab off the ranks.”

Lensen believed it would only get worse because it was so easy to create fake content.

“I think there’s also a question there, of course, as to why people do this. I think part of it is they get reactions, they … get clicks, they get engagement.

“But then there’s also of course some other people who have slightly more nefarious reasons as well.”

People who know Mount Maunganui or had seen the slip site would easily be able to tell some of the images were not real – but others, for example people who had never visited Aotearoa, may not.

Lensen said that had the opposite effect, too, with people from overseas seeing real images of the disaster online and believing them to be AI-generated.

“My best advice is that we need to go back to those authoritative sources … what is Nema reporting? What’s on the council’s Facebook page? What’s on the council’s website? What is Radio New Zealand or other public voices saying about this?” he said.

“You’ve got to check your sources, you can’t just rely on what someone you don’t know has posted, because it’s very hard to know whether or not it is real content.”

Netsafe, the online safety agency, had advice about how to spot AI-generated images and video, which includes looking for “strange details”, checking the source, and questioning who made it and why.

– RNZ