AI-generated reconstructions of the past — Pompeii before the eruption, WWII scenes, Chernobyl surveillance footage, and a video of US soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima — can serve as historical record and fill supposed gaps in the archives.
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Expert: Roland Meyer, Media researcher (DW Fact Check) DW Fact Check (July 19, 2026) warns that AI can create "synthetic images that never existed but might have," making it appear to fill supposed or actual gaps in the archives and historical record — a "deceptive promise" that distorts historical understanding. The viral YouTube video of US soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima was produced using Veo, a generative AI tool, based on the famous 1945 photograph by Joe Rosenthal; no authentic video footage of that moment exists. Meyer notes such AI images mainly reproduce familiar clichés and stereotypes: "Not a window into the past, but a mirror of our present." Source: https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-spotting-ai-generated-historical-images/a-77969109
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