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There’s nothing the public can do in determining if the AI generated images or propaganda is real or not. So right now the public really just has to rely on the U.S. Intelligence community and the social networks, social media networks themselves to tell you if something is AI generated or if it’s been altered or might be a deepfake. The intelligence community of the United States has the capability to tell us something is a deepfake, for instance, through its reverse AI technology.

Expert comment on Baltimore bridge collapse"The Francis Scott Key Bridge is a metal truss bridge with a suspended deck, and from videos shown by the media it seems that the vessel has hit a main pier of the bridge. The main piers rest on soil underwater and they are part of the foundations of the bridge."This type of bridge is not designed to redistribute loads in the event of a main pier collapsing and therefore videos show there is a progressive collapse of the bridge (bridge elements fail after other bridge elements had failed)."Maybe if the vessel had hit a small section of the suspended deck the bridge would have been able to survive the collision but not a main pier."I am assuming the first line of investigation will be to understand why the vessel could not avoid the pier when there were no other vessels around." Dr Marina Bock BEng MEng PhD PGCert FHEA CEng MICELecturer in Structural Engineering, Aston UniversityFor further details or to speak to Dr Bock contact Nicola Jones Press and Communications Manager College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Aston University, Birmingham n.jones6@aston.ac.uk or Mobile: (+44)7825 342091

Following the Princess of Wales apologising "for any confusion" after she said she edited a Mother's Day photograph of her and her children we have an expert available to comment.Professor Abdul Sadka is an expert in imaging and image analytics/processing at Aston University https://research.aston.ac.uk/en/persons/abdul-sadkaHe said: “Although the Princess has admitted manipulation of the photo it still leaves two questions to be answered; how did the news agencies suspect image manipulation to the point that made them decide to retract it, and what part of the photo did undergo the tampering?“From all the discourse I read about it so far though, none of the articles really touch on what the manipulation was all about and where in the photo news agencies think this was done. Is it in the positioning of the hands, for example George’s, or is it in the cropping and application of colours (some news agencies are lenient with this sort of manipulation on their published imagery).“So, perceptually speaking, there is no certainty on what part of the image editing was done and how, but technically speaking the question would be: Is that a deepfake? that is an image that purports the royals to be having this sort of gathering in this sort of setting when they haven’t.“To provide a definitive response to that question you would have to analyse the image at low level (using low level image analytics). However that still leaves unanswered - what was the basis behind the decision to “kill/retract” the image when they first raised the suspicion of image manipulation?”Professor Abdul Hamid Sadka is professor of Visual Media Technologies Director, Aston Digital Futures InstituteTo speak to Professor Sadka contact Nicola Jones Press and Communications Manager, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Aston University, Mobile: (+44)7825 342091 or n.jones6aston.ac.uk

News media coverage of celebrities is probably the biggest contributor to celebrity political influence with the profit-driven news media likely believing that the public is more likely to consume news if it includes celebrity coverage. Social media facilitates more people including those who are not highly engaged in politics to see political messages because others in their social media network post about politics.

Expertise marketing is the practice of making the knowledge and skills of your human resources more visible to your partners and audiences. It draws attention to the value that your people can bring as brand ambassadors and strategically leverages the work your experts are doing to tell a more personal story. In many cases, expertise marketing can also be used to showcase your strengths in research and innovation. Creating a stronger digital presence, expertise marketing more effectively uses your channels to connect with audiences such as media, customers, partners and donors. It builds a sense of trust with your audiences and above all else, it helps establish your reputation as an industry leader.

For marketers today the purchase process has increased in complexity. Today, audiences advance through a process known as the buyer’s journey” – the research and decision-making process that customers go through which progresses from awareness to evaluation and ultimately purchase.   Audiences have become far more sophisticated. Research clearly shows that expert content is setting the bar for relevance, credibility and attractiveness for every stage of the buyer journey. To address this, expert content is more important than ever.  The following 5 areas are influencing this shift.Buyers Have Shifted into Self-Serve Mode When Researching Purchases.  Approximately 67% of the buyer’s journey is complete prior to contacting a vendor (Source: Sirius Decisions).    The research continues to show that many buyers would sooner help themselves to content rather than speak to a salesperson, especially in the early stage of the buyer journey. Audiences are increasingly venturing online to do more of their own research to validate the buying decision. And they are digging deeper into content and are looking to see the people you have onboard to support their decision-making.The Buyer Journey is More Collaborative & Non-Linear Than Ever.  It is clear that the traditional linear sales funnel has disappeared. In B2B markets, buyers now engage with an average of 11.4 pieces of content prior to making a purchase (Source: Forrester Research). They are now more likely to bounce around on a variety of sites.Experts are a Top Source of Influence in Purchase Behavior.   Research by the Information Technology Sales and Marketing Association (ITSMA) has consistently ranked subject-matter experts as a top source of information influencing purchase behavior in B2B, higher consideration purchases. In this new model, buyers validate the purchase decision by seeking out reliable information from trusted sources. Decisions such as what lawyer to choose; what IT platform to invest in or where to study for graduate school can be very positively influenced by expert content.The Buying Process is More Inclusive than Ever with Multiple Personas Playing a Part.  In addition to consulting industry peers on social media channels, buyers work with colleagues inside their organizations when making purchase decisions. Marketers and salespeople cannot be content with focusing on key decision-makers. If you aren’t known company-wide this will present challenges.Feeding the Search Engines The Right Content Matters More Than Ever.   According to a Google/Millward Brown study, 71% of business purchases begin with a non-branded search. These generic queries, are from people looking for product first, not for a specific brand or organization name. Huge improvements in organic search rank are possible once when your content is optimized to support the customer at all phases of the buyer journey. Expert content, in the form of articles, infographics, or videos, not only strengthens the trust relationship with your buyer, but also reinforces your value and expertise with search engines. you pay a little more attention to the information structure on your website and add assets such as multimedia content to expert profiles. Search engines continue to reward well developed expert content that has personal attribution with higher trust and authority rankings as it views this content as more relevant.

By definition, an expert is someone with comprehensive or authoritative knowledge in a particular area of study. While formal education and certifications are a starting point for expertise, many disciplines don’t have a set list of criteria to measure expertise against. There are many dimensions of expertise that relate not just to the working proficiency of an expert in their field but also to the degree of influence and authority they have earned within their profession or community of practice. Because of this, expertise is often looked at as a person’s cumulative training, skills, research, and experience.What’s important to consider is all of the roles that the people in your organization can play. While many of these people have put in their 10,000 hours, not everyone is wired to speak on podiums or to the media. But they still hold incredible value – from the perspectives they can help you research and develop to the content they can help produce. Here are some of the key attributes to look for in assessing the various roles for your people as you formulate an expertise marketing plan:Authority: Has a reputation with an audience as a go-to source for perspectivesAdvocate: Demonstrates a commitment to a community of practice to help advance their fieldEducator: Teaches and inspires on the podium or in the classroomAuthor: Develops content to establish their reputation and reach a broader audienceResearcher: Generates unique insights through their research or fieldworkPractitioner: Actively builds knowledge in a specific discipline or practice area by providing servicesGraduate: Has formal education or gained experience to achieve proficiency in a subject

There are 5 key ways that you can improve your employee content to better drive visitor attention, interaction and trust.Go Beyond Boring Bios: The new way to create expert profiles is to provide a detailed overview of an employee’s expertise and experience. This means that in addition to creating a detailed biography, you should also share content that shows key accomplishments that build credibility and trust: Are they an author? Have they spoken at a conference? Interviewed for a podcast? It’s important to get this information listed.Get Visual & Social: Beyond the written biography, look for ways to make content for your people more interesting for your audiences. Are there YouTube videos, Slideshares, Tweets, or thumbnails to books they have written? If so, you can leverage these assets for their profile. Remember if you are pitching media or conference organizers, this information is becoming tablestakes for journalists or event bookers who are vetting media sources or speakers.Show You Are Relevant & In-Demand: Public appearances and news spotlights can take your experts from unknown to sought-after. There are two ways to tackle this. The first is to capture any existing media releases to ramp up their credentials. If your expert hasn’t yet participated in this type of activity, publish content that speaks to emerging topics and news trends and provide quotes available to the media on newsworthy topics. This is a proven way to earn the attention of journalists and allow you to start building visibility as an industry insider.Go Beyond Your Website: While your website is ideal for hosting expert profiles, it’s not the only place to let your team shine. If you want to boost your visibility, make sure you take advantage of opportunities on third-party sites and platforms. This might include industry directories or your client/partner websites. By using the ExpertFile Platform, you can also publish your expert profiles to reach thousands of newsrooms through our media partners.Be More Approachable: It’s funny that almost every page on most websites has a call to action. However if you visit most people profiles, the journey ends there – or worse, it takes the visitor off your website and to an old, tired Linkedin profile. Instead, let your audiences get in touch with your business by including a specific call-to-actions (CTAs) within your expert profile. Depending on the size and capabilities of your organization, you might have want to enable direct connections to experts or opt to funnel leads through a various departments. Either way, the key to getting leads is starting a conversation.

Expertise marketing supports digital transformation in the following ways.It aligns people. Most companies aren’t particularly good at telling their people that their expertise is valued and many employees don’t understand the role they play as brand ambassadors. On top of that, outdated biographies on the company website fail to share the work that these experts do with the audiences who are looking for it. A well-constructed expertise marketing program helps get experts and executives aligned on how they can help the brand – and it helps marketing teams feed the content beast.It tracks data. Metrics on visitor behavior are critical to calculating ROI and ensuring your content is working. That said, most organizations don’t have an intuitive way of tracking internal contributions to the corresponding engagement data – making it difficult to determine which people and topics are driving results. Expertise marketing programs are designed to capture essential metrics on employee contributions and ensure that leads are captured and routed to appropriate individuals and departments for prompt follow-up and reporting.It enhances search and SEO. Part of digital transformation is creating a sustained online presence. By harnessing your collective expertise, you can quickly publish a large volume of quality, searchable content that boosts your owned content footprint. It also provides a way to capitalize on earned media opportunities related to breaking news and emerging trends.It drives collaboration. Many organizations' corporate policies and standards tend to lack guidelines for generating and promoting individual experts. As a result, individual groups within the organization are forced to fill the void and essentially, do their own thing. This leads to a disconnected set of expensive, custom projects. Organizations with structured expertise marketing programs consistently report an increase in collaboration and organizational alignment.It minimizes risk. It’s becoming more and more important to ensure adherence to corporate brand standards and editorial guidelines, as well as regulatory standards such as accessibility compliance. By centralizing your content and utilizing a federated content management structure, you’re not only providing your employees with a common source for branded assets and templates, but you’re empowering them to get things done in the simplest way possible. This approach mitigates risk, speeds time to market, and dramatically lowers costs to implement a program.