Synthetic Media
AI & Emerging Tech
Images, video, voice or text generated by AI rather than captured or written by a person.
In practice
Synthetic media is any content produced by a generative model — a product render that was never photographed, a voice-over from no one's throat, a face that belongs to nobody. It is now a normal part of design production and an ethical fault line at the same time, because the same tools that mock up a chair can fake a person.
Questions
What is Synthetic Media?
Synthetic media is content — visual, audio or written — made by a generative model instead of recorded or authored in the traditional sense.
Why do you use Synthetic Media?
It collapses the cost of producing imagery and copy, which changes what a small team can put in front of people and how fast.
How do you use/apply Synthetic Media?
Use it for what does not exist yet — concepts, variations, placeholders — and be explicit about what is generated when it stands in for something real.
When do you use Synthetic Media?
Early in a process, for exploration and range. Carefully in anything a person might take as a record of reality.
Who uses Synthetic Media?
Designers, marketers and studios — and increasingly anyone with a prompt.
