A video can look real, sound real and still be completely fake.
That is the uncomfortable reality Nigerians are entering as artificial intelligence makes it increasingly easy to create convincing videos, photographs and audio recordings of people saying or doing things that never happened.
The technology is moving quickly. Google said in May 2026 that its SynthID watermarking system had been used on more than 100 billion images and videos and 60,000 years of audio. The company has also expanded tools that allow users to check whether certain content was generated or altered using AI.
The problem is that detection is becoming a race. As AI-generated media becomes more realistic, the old advice of simply looking for obvious mistakes like strange hands, unnatural faces or awkward lip movements is becoming less reliable. Research shared by Google this year found that people correctly identified high-quality deepfake videos only about a quarter of the time.
For Nigerians, that matters because so much information now travels through social media and messaging platforms before it reaches traditional news outlets.
A fabricated video of a politician, celebrity, religious leader or businessperson could potentially spread through WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok or X long before anyone has established whether it is genuine.
And the consequences can go beyond embarrassment.
A fake recording could damage someone’s reputation. A fabricated political statement could influence voters. A manipulated emergency video could create panic. A convincing voice clone could even make it appear that someone has asked relatives, colleagues or followers for money.
Nigeria is also heading into another politically sensitive period, with campaigning for the country’s 2027 elections already beginning. Reuters reported in August that campaigns were getting underway, placing even greater importance on the authenticity of political information circulating online.
So how can Nigerians tell what is real?
The first rule is simple: don’t trust the video simply because it looks convincing.
Check who originally posted it. Look for the same claim on credible news organisations. Search for the full video rather than relying on a short clip. Pay attention to the date, location and context.
If a supposedly major announcement exists only in a WhatsApp message or a random social-media account, that should be a warning sign.
Technology can help too. Google’s Gemini app can check certain images and videos for its SynthID watermark, while Content Credentials can provide information about how some media was created or edited. But these tools are not a universal truth machine: the absence of a watermark does not automatically prove that something is real.
That distinction is important.
The future of verification may not be about developing one perfect “fake detector”. Instead, it will require several layers of verification technical tools, professional journalism, digital literacy and, perhaps most importantly, the willingness of ordinary users to pause before sharing.
The biggest danger may not be that Nigerians will believe every deepfake.
It may be that people eventually stop believing anything.
When a genuine video can be dismissed as AI and a fake video can look completely authentic, trust itself becomes part of the battle.
For Nigerians navigating an increasingly AI-generated internet, the most valuable question may therefore be changing from “Does this look real?” to “What evidence do we have that it is?”
