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True, and I agree with you on it not being AI, however, the burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt, not for a defendant to prove innocence.

But you are correct, if it was in fact AI, showing how he (or someone else) made it at the time would certainly help get him off the hook.

Guy could've probably picked a better place to base jump anyway, national parks are notorious for having a billion laws that don't really exist anywhere else.

You can't even take your cat white river rafting on the grand canyon >:( https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/7.4

Maybe he doesn't have to prove that though. If he can find an expert witness who will make claims that based on their expert analysis it is possible this video is AI generated, and he does not testify himself, then that may be enough to introduce reasonable doubt.

Also I’d be surprised if the only evidence introduced by the prosecution is the video. There may be other eyewitnesses, evidence of equipment usage, communications with others prior to the event about his intent, and so forth.

But shouldn't it be the prosecution proving the video is real?

Maybe he did it with a local model!

(Yeah, me neither.)

I don't think it was AI either but I don't think that would hold up in court.

It's legal by default on US federal land, (e.g. BLM or USFS) which covers about a fifth of the country, and is especially concentrated in areas with mountainous and other earthen terrain that is favorable to BASE jumpers. We just take a very small portion of that land, designate it national parks or forests, make everything illegal there, dump all of our tourists there, and charge them to park.

There's far more to see outside of those national parks and forests than there is inside. Look up any paragliders or bush pilots on YouTube that live near federal land, and they pretty much go wherever they want to go.

If you're an avid hiker or camper and are visiting the US, find local documentation on where to visit or befriend someone in the area who can make recommendations, and you'll get to see our natural landscape without all of the tourists or regulations. You can legally BASE jump off a cliff, hike in the nude, mine for gold, set up an impromptu gun range, and camp there for a couple of weeks, or indefinitely if you hike two miles each day.

They don’t want to deal with the liability lawsuits.

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That tracks. BASE jumping and representing yourself share a common philosophy towards risk.

>talking to an investigator prior to being charged

Isn't lying to a federal investigator also a crime? Searching suggests 18 U.S.C. § 1001.

Put private key into every digital camera and hash/sign every frame. That private key is accompanied with manufacturer signature and can't be easily extracted. Mark all unsigned media as suspicious.

> I wish we had a way to build a durable chain of custody into these technologies

Do you? Consider for a moment all the dissidents and protestors who would be ensnared by their own devices then, with no "it was all ai" defense available?

Film cameras may be making a comeback.

> Gosh there's a lot of corollary evidence pointing to his guilt but this is likely going to become more and more common and force the use of a lot more technical forensic resources.

Nah. People who do something like this can't help but brag. They'll incriminate themselves in seconds voluntarily.

Couldn't you just match the noise profile of the camera with the video?

They got him for illegal BASE jumping and now they are going to get him for lying to the police about it too.

Do you have a link? Dudes got class.

Because it's very dangerous and first responders access in national parks isn't always easy. You can obtain a permit to do it, however, see this memo that summarizes the current situation:

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/policy/upload/NPS_Guidance_Memo...

NIMBYists concentrate their efforts on national forests and parks, so everything is illegal there. Cross the boarder outside of Yosemite, and you're in unregulated forestry land where you can camp for weeks without a permit and walk wherever you want.

Most likely to avoid wasting emergency services.

Although, it would be nice if we could give people a general “I understand the risk and won’t ask for help if it goes wrong” waiver for dangerous activities.

lying to federal officers is what nailed Martha Stewart

It's not even the fact that digital evidence is being used in courts these days, the disturbing thought is, all in all, that it's not that implausible for malicious actors to fake anyone's activity. How would you prove that you weren't at the crime scene when there's a digital footprint of your phone's GPS data, corroborated by (albeit not crystal clear) images and video?

I'd probably be most inspired to make an AI video of doing something awesome in a national park just after having visited the park, too.

They'll need a flock cam on the summit if they want to push that any further.

Maybe AI was driving his car.