The material about the activities of ICE agents was indeed created by artificial intelligence, the TV channel invited its correspondent home

German public service television company ZDF has invited its correspondent who worked in the US to Germany after footage created by artificial intelligence ended up in the news broadcast. This is reported by the news agency AFP.

A ZDF reporter used material found on the internet in a news insert that dealt with the activities of ICE agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

One of the clips was created by artificial intelligence and was not marked as such. Another clip showed an arrest that actually took place in Florida in 2022.

“The damage caused by the neglect of journalistic rules is considerable,” ZDF editor-in-chief Bettina Schausten stated in the press release, according to AFP.

“At the core is the question of the credibility of our reporting.”

The reporter the original news insert shown on February 13 was correct according to ZDF. An updated version was broadcast on February 15 on the main news broadcast, and included two misleading video clips.

The news anchor had started the news insert by saying that the President of the United States Donald Trump’s the administration’s immigration raids had created “an atmosphere of fear that also extends to children”.

According to AFP, the watermark of Open AI’s Sora application could be seen in one of the video clips. Sora creates short videos based on text commands.

“The material created with artificial intelligence should not have been used without journalistic justification,” ZDF stated in its statement.