Imagine waking up to a viral video of your president announcing an abrupt change in national policy, only to discover later it never happened. Or a widely shared clip of an influencer endorsing a scam investment, created entirely by artificial intelligence.

In a world where deepfakes can look more convincing than reality, the question isn’t just what’s true, it’s who you can trust.

We are living through a historic turning point in information. AI can now create realistic audio, video, and images that are nearly impossible for the untrained eye to distinguish from the real thing. Tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and dozens of open-source video generators are advancing so fast that yesterday’s “impossible” is today’s “downloadable.”

In much of Africa, where access is mobile-first and apps like WhatsApp are central to news sharing, falsehoods can spread rapidly. The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2025 finds that global trust in news remains near 40 per cent, while social platforms and online personalities, e.g, influencers, continue to be key vectors of misinformation.

For many media outlets, the race for survival has been measured in clicks, views, and impressions. But here’s the truth: in an AI-saturated world, numbers mean nothing if audiences stop believing you.

When trust erodes, everything else follows: ad revenue, audience loyalty and even a community’s shared sense of reality. This isn’t just a media industry problem; it’s a societal risk.

Local newsrooms are uniquely positioned to counter AI-driven misinformation because of their proximity, networks, and cultural literacy. TUKO.co.ke has demonstrated this strength firsthand. Its journalists verify every story before publication, calling sources directly, cross-checking facts, and reviewing content to ensure it meets the highest journalistic standards.

This commitment to accuracy and credibility has earned TUKO.co.ke significant recognition. In 2025, it was named the Top Digital Publisher with the Most Weekly Online Reach in Kenya by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

The Media Council of Kenya also recognised the platform as the Most Popular News Website in the Country in the 2023/2024 State of the Media Report. Most recently, TUKO.co.ke received the Bobea Leadership Award, where it was honoured as one of the most trusted news sources in Kenya.

Yet trust alone cannot defend against the emerging threats of AI-driven misinformation. In Nigeria’s 2023 elections, deepfake audio falsely depicting a candidate conceding defeat went viral, potentially influencing voter behaviour.In Kenya, coordinated campaigns circulated AI-generated images, ranging from protestors waving flags to staged scenes, that distorted public perception before authorities could intervene. 

Without credible local media to step in, these fakes can and do spread unchecked. Yes, algorithms can help detect fake content, but the real battle will be won with trust capital. That means doubling down on verification and showing audiences how stories are vetted to build transparency and loyalty.

It also means investing in media literacy, because helping readers recognise AI-generated content is now part of public service journalism. And it means collaborating across outlets, since a united fact-checking ecosystem makes it harder for misinformation to survive.

In the age of AI and deepfakes, audiences have a new civic duty: to value accuracy over virality and to support the outlets that consistently deliver truth. AI can imitate voices, faces and emotions, but it cannot fake the bond between a newsroom and the community it serves.

That relationship, built through years of accurate, transparent and responsible reporting, is what will carry us through the misinformation storms ahead. 

More than ever, trust in local news matters far more than numbers.

Righa Sedellar is a PR Officer at TUKO.co.ke