sf, 04.07.2025
The Information Service of the French government recently made headlines by posting a short Ai-generated video on their Instagram and TikTok accounts celebrating a female resistance fighter. "A commendable intention at first, but a failure in the end" notes Le Figaro reporting on the case. "The initiative caused an outcry, with internet users deploring the use of artificial intelligence on the one hand, and historical blunders on the other."
Lasting thirty seconds, the video began with the phrase ‘POV: "you are a female resistance fighter during World War II’, The video showed the freedom fighter distributing a underground newspaper’ in a letterbox before being manhandled by two helmeted soldiers. ‘I am captured and tortured,’ read the caption.
No wonder: she was wearing a blue, white and red armband and handed out leaflets in broad daylight (as resistant fighters usually do ...)
The last sequence of the video showed the resistance fighter celebrating the liberation of France in 1945, flag in hand, followed by a group of smiling people. Except that the German soldier who had tortured the female resistance fighter had slipped into this scene of jubilation. In addition, internet users spotted a Japanese flag flying in a corner. ..
The video was eventually taken down.
However, it was shortly followed by a new one, this time to pay tribute the French women who voted for the first time in 1945. Although the video did not contain any errors it was considered shallow and useless from an historical perspective.
In its defence, the government information service argued that it wanted to ‘adapt the content and narrative style to new audience habits, particularly on social media.’
This case raises questions about the use of AI in historical contexts.
Is there any value in using generative AI (GenAI) for historical reconstruction, and if so, how could so many errors have been made in such a short video?
GenAI : The worm is in the system.
The answer to the first question is that using GenAI for historical reconstructions offers little to no value. And this is because of the way GenAI currently works which makes it incapable of producing historical reconstitutions, which are truthful to the past it wants to render. This answers the second question as to why so many errors had slipped into the video generated a shallow result.
AI is trained using billions of images retrieved from the internet without authorisation or verification. Many of these images originate from amateur websites that present historical scenes in a sometimes fanciful or idealised way and/or paying little attention to details, such as details of the uniforms or other garments. Since the algorithm is trained on incorrect data, it is not surprising that the results are also inaccurate, such as a female resistance fighter wearing a a tricolour armband. If carried out at all, the task of spotting correcting such errors would be complicated, tedious, and prone to oversight, such as not spotting the presence of Japanese flag at Liberation Day celebration in France in May 1945.
The algorithm, which has already been trained on erroneous data, is also deliberately biased to avoid modern biases. However, when it comes to history, this can lead to comical results, such as black or Asian soldiers on Google Gemini when prompting for "Nazi soldiers". The presence of a German soldier in the day of Liberation of France may be the product of an algorithm trained to avoid discrimination.
The second video released by the communication service of the French government did not contain an factual errors. But this is because it did not contain any facts. Even the places and people appearing in the video are not factual. The video presents an ethereal world with imaginary people in an imaginary city. They are all beautiful and smiling.
GenAI would need quality data to be truthful. It would need real data from exisiting archives. This however bears the question why not use the work, human expertise and truthful resources of existing archives ?
Compare the governmental video on Tiktok... (in French)
C’est le jour J ! 🗳️ #toutesettouségaux #droitdevote #history #AI #IA... | Femmes | TikTok
with a video frokm INA (in French)
Vidéos "historiques" : quand le gouvernement fait n'importe quoi avec l'IA
Two CEPIC member libraries have set up a light box on the French Resistance and Libération. Enjoy!
La Collection
LACOLLECTION (FR) La Résistance et la Libération
TopFoto
The real French Resistance - Topfoto Image Archive