[Ads-l] synthetic media (was Re: Phrase: Jagged Intelligence (description applied to AI systems))

[Amy West]

I'm going to add a "new to me" one: "synthetic media" for media produced 
by generative AI. I spotted it in an essay re-published on EarthSky. 
Probably not new to the new word watchers.

"For many everyday scenarios – especially low-resolution video calls and 
media shared on social media platforms – their realism is now high 
enough to reliably fool nonexpert viewers. In practical terms, synthetic 
media have become indistinguishable from authentic recordings for 
ordinary people and, in some cases, even for institutions."

By Siwei Lyu <https://theconversation.com/profiles/siwei-lyu-528645>, 
University at Buffalo 
<https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-at-buffalo-925>

https://earthsky.org/human-world/deepfakes-flooding-the-internet-rise-in-2026/

This article is republished from The Conversation 
<https://theconversation.com> under a Creative Commons license. Read the 
original article 
<https://theconversation.com/deepfakes-leveled-up-in-2025-heres-whats-coming-next-271391>.

This is probably a well-established term of art in the field . . .

---Amy West



On 2/2/26 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date:    Sun, 1 Feb 2026 17:34:39 -0500
> From:    ADSGarson O'Toole<adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Phrase: Jagged Intelligence (description applied to AI systems)
>
> Al systems currently display an odd mixture of superhuman capabilities
> and pathetic incompetence. In 2024 researcher Andrej Karpathy employed
> the term "jagged intelligence" to describe this behavior. In reply to
> Karpathy's message Ethan Mollick pointed to a 2023 paper he
> co-authored which contained a pertinent phrase:
>

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