Visual Evidence Lab @ CU Boulder

Chaos in Minneapolis Exposes an Internet at War With Truth

A flood of fakery & dubious content

“We have a very long history of weaponizing and manipulating images. Social media today, coupled with the generative A.I. tools we’re seeing, have taken the problem to an unprecedented level.” -CASBS fellow @sristovska.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/t...

We're pleased to announce the second talk in our Seeking Justice with Video and AI speaker series: Kelly Gates on Feb 20 (11 am - 12 pm MT) via Zoom. This event is open and free, but advanced registration is required: cuboulder.zoom.us/webinar/regi... Co-sponsored by @cumediastudies.bsky.social

Video evidence and eyewitness accounts: The science behind why people see different things Why can people watch the same video footage and see different things? Neuroscience can help explain

How your brain changes what you see & how bias can affect a viewer

As CASBS fellow @sristovska.bsky.social explains in @sciam.bsky.social , “Seeing is not just what our eyes physically see but also the experiences and ideas that viewers bring to images.”

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

YouTube video by CBC News Saskatchewan In the age of generative AI how can we trust what our eyes see?

What determines how a person interprets what they see on video? How do you assess the truth or trustworthiness of what you see?

CASBS fellow @sristovska.bsky.social appeared on the CBC News program Blue Sky to discuss these vital, topical, and thorny questions

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEN0...

Deepfakes and the Future of Evidence

Our debut episode of Seeking Justice with Video and AI is now live. It aired earlier today on KVCU Radio 1190 and is available on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0LhB...

w/terrific insights form Judge Paul Grimm, Professor Rebecca Delfino, and @riana.bsky.social

We are excited to announce the launch of our Seeking Justice with Video and AI speaker series, featuring Yael Granot on January 23 from 11 am to 12 pm MT via Zoom. Please scan the QR code to register and receive the Zoom link or use this link: cuboulder.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season! See you again in 2026.

Our lab is supported by a diverse team, including an advisory board, steering committee, fellows, interns, alumni affiliates, and affiliate organizations.

Thank you all for being a part of our journey!

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**November 5** We released our inaugural report, "Video's Day in Court: Advancing Equitable Legal Usage of Visual Technologies and AI." (see our website.)

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**October 29** We marked our formal launch with new offices in IBS, website, and social media accounts.

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**June 16** Together with the nonprofit SCALES OKN, we were awarded a Sustaining Community Connections grant from the American Council of Learned Societies.

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A Year in Review: Reflecting on Key Highlights from 2025

**April 25** We celebrated our soft launch with the Justice by Video workshop at the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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The last Friday introduction of 2025: the fabulous Alexa Koenig who serves on our advisory board. Alexa is a research professor and co-faculty director of the MacArthur Foundation award-winning Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, where she also leads the center’s Investigations Program.

We're excited to announce the launch of "Seeking Justice with Video and AI," a new podcast from the Visual Evidence Lab. Tune in on KVCU Radio 1190 every second Wednesday of the month during News Team’s Audio Magazine from 11 am to 12 pm MT. The podcast will also be available on Spotify afterwards.

Doctoral Futures A Bold Approach in a Time of Instability

The ACLS meeting featured presentations on a wide-range of community projects that were incredibly inspiring. You'd also check out these initiatives:

www.acls.org/doctoral-fut...

www.acls.org/programs/lea...

www.acls.org/programs/acl...

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As part of the grant, we hosted Kat and Kaitlyn at a scholar-practitioner workshop in Oct, where they discussed how PhD students can apply their skills in various justice-driven careers.

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We've been working with SCALES-OKN's Executive Director Kat Albrecht and Communications Director Kaitlyn Filip on a new project examining the use of video in Colorado courts (report out in January). Check out the terrific work SCALES-OKN is doing to enhance court transparency: scales-okn.org

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Lab Director @sristovska.bsky.social and steering committee member Tara Coughlin shared insights from their collaboration with the nonprofit SCALES-OKN at a grantee meeting with @acls1919.bsky.social last Friday.

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"We're risking unfair renderings of justice."

ABC's affiliate in Denver covered the inaugural report issued by the @visualevidencelab.bsky.social, directed by CASBS fellow @sristovska.bsky.social

Full news coverage & access to the report: www.denver7.com/news/local-n...

Before coming to Stanford in 2015, Riana was an associate in the internet strategy and litigation group at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and a law clerk to the Hon. Bruce J. McGiverin, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

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More recently, she co-authored an urgently needed report, “AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: Insights from Educators, Platforms, Law Enforcement, Legislators, and Victims:" purl.stanford.edu/mn692xc5736 It's also worth checking out: www.scientificamerican.com/article/teen...

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In 2020, she published the first law journal article to comprehensively assess the impact of deepfake technology on evidentiary proceedings in court: www.bu.edu/pilj/files/2...

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A lawyer by training, Pfefferkorn researches the law and policy implications of emerging technologies, including AI. Her research spans topics in privacy and civil liberties, encryption policy, digital surveillance, cybersecurity, and online trust and safety.

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Continuing our Friday tradition, we're thrilled to introduce another member of our advisory @riana.bsky.social. Riana is a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI).

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Sandra emphasized that this is not merely an academic concern; it is a vital endeavor in the quest for equal and fair justice.

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Ethical witnessing goes beyond questions about the fidelity and content of an image. It requires scrutiny of what counts as valid evidence, who is authorized to testify about its authenticity, and how truth is contested and established in court.

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While improving standards of authenticity and proof in the wake of AI is essential, it is equally important to address enduring questions regarding access to justice and the racial and ethnic disparities present in the legal system.

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From an 1869 "spirit photographer" case that put the evidentiary status of photography on trial to wrongful arrests linked to AI facial recognition tools today, Sandra examined how technological manipulation of evidentiary images has influenced the pursuit of justice.

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We're excited to share insights from the recent symposium at the @ascmediarisk.org at the University of Pennsylvania on December 4-5. Our founding director @sristovska.bsky.social delivered a compelling talk titled "New Technologies, Old Problems: Witnessing in an Age of AI."

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Inaugural Report: "Video’s Day in Court: Advancing Equitable Legal Usage of Visual Technologies and AI" At its launch in April 2025, the Visual Evidence Lab gathered experts from across academia, law, media forensics, journalism and human rights practice to

To tackle these issues, we proposed:
- A decentralized federated database for evidentiary videos
- Training for judges
- Instructions for jurors
- Safeguards for AI-generated and AI-enhanced video

For those interested in a deeper dive, the full report is here: www.colorado.edu/lab/visualev...

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