It begins quietly, in the familiar glow of a smartphone screen. A mother in a small town watches a video that appears to show a group of migrants being handed a pile of cash by government officials. The caption reads: “They get everything, we get nothing.” She feels a flash of anger, and she shares it with her neighbors, her family, her online friends. It later turns out the video was fabricated—artificial intelligence had cloned voices, simulated faces, and stitched together scenes that never happened. But by then, the damage is done. This is the unsettling reality described by the…

Every day, millions of people scroll through news feeds, share messages, ask voice assistants for directions, and make decisions based on information that flows through screens and algorithms. Most rarely pause to consider why they believe what they read, or how technology quietly shapes their choices. Dr Mehwish Nasim does. A senior lecturer in computer science at The University of Western Australia, Nasim has devoted her career to understanding the complex space where human beings and machines meet. She researches artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and online misinformation, and she does so with a deep appreciation for the human factors that make…