Hany Farid

Who He Is

Hany Farid is a computer science professor at Dartmouth College who studies how to detect whether a photo, video, or audio recording has been altered or generated by AI. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 and then did research at MIT. He joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1999, where his work on spotting edited photos helped found digital image forensics. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2019 to 2026 before returning to Dartmouth, and he wrote a book called Photo Forensics. He also co-founded GetReal Security, a company that builds tools to detect fake media, and he helps journalists, courts, and governments check whether images are real.

Why He Matters

Hany Farid showed that edited images often leave traces that analysts can find, even when the picture looks real. His methods use physics, such as checking whether shadows and reflections match the scene's lighting, to spot fakes. He also helped Microsoft develop PhotoDNA, a tool many internet companies use to find and remove known harmful images. He teaches the public how to spot fakes too, through a 2025 TED talk and a six-part article series for the Content Authenticity Initiative. His interest began around 1998, when he picked up a book of courtroom evidence rules while waiting in a library checkout line at MIT, and he has said, “That was the start.”