Images of faces created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are seen as more trustworthy than images of genuine faces say researchers, who warn of the risks of online fraud and other harms.

This is the first ever study to examine the trustworthiness of AI faces created by the latest diffusion technology and was led by Lancaster University with Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Lead researcher Lex McGuire said: “As AI-generated images become more sophisticated and more accessible, as a society, we are increasingly exposed to artificially-generated faces—often in nefarious and exploitative scenarios, such as political disinformation, financial and identity fraud, and catfishing.”

Some memories remain with us for years, shaping how we learn from experience and adapt to the world around us. Others disappear quickly, even when they once seemed important. Although scientists have long studied how memories are formed in the brain, far less is known about what allows certain memories to persist over time.

A research team led by Dr. KOH Wuhyun at the Center for Memory and Glioscience within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), together with researchers at the Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI), has now discovered that astrocytes play a critical role in this process. Astrocytes are star-shaped cells in the brain that have traditionally been considered support cells for neurons. The study shows that these cells actively help determine whether memories can be maintained over long periods of time, revealing a previously unknown mechanism that supports long-term memory persistence.