Telling the story of wars in the era of AI | Bel Trew & Bruno Giussani | TEDxBerlin

There are over 50 active conflicts in the world. Some very visible, others less observed but not less dramatic. Telling the story of wars has always ben complicated, but in recent years it has become both more detailed, and more challenging. We get great journalism alongside from-the-ground social media streams and AI-generated fake videos. Bel Trew is an experienced war correspondent and filmmaker for Britain’s The Independent, who has reported from the Middle East, from Ukraine and other geographies of conflict. In this conversation with Bruno Giussani, author of "Our Minds Under Siege: How to Avoid Being Manipulated in the Age of AI", Trew discusses her experience of seeing war happen in real time in front of her eyes while simultaneously seeing it unfold on social media; how that changes our understanding of modern conflicts; and how news outlets can leverage AI. Bel Trew is a multi award-winning international correspondent, photographer and documentary filmmaker who has spent a decade and a half reporting from some of the most defining crises and conflicts of our time. Trew started her foreign correspondent career reporting as a freelancer during the Arab Spring in 2011, and since then has reported on uprisings, disasters and wars from Sudan to Gaza, joining The Independentin 2018. After Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, she crisscrossed the country for multiple investigations that delved into the fate of thousands of missing civilians, including children and people with disabilities. As part of this work, she created her first original documentary, The Body in the Woods. More recently Bel has made documentaries criss-crossing the US, and sub-saharan Africa, tracking Trump's second term in office, and the deadly impact of the collapse of USAID. That included running a campaign to protect global HIV response programmes as millions more infections and deaths are expected to threaten global health and upend the hope of ending the AIDS pandemic in a few years. In a world of disinformation and misinformation complicated by AI-generated images and growing distrust of the mainstream media, Bel continues to cover global conflict from the ground - including recent wars between the US, Israel, Iran and Lebanon. Bruno Giussani is the author of "Our Minds Under Siege: How to Avoid Being Manipulated in the Age of artificial intelligence" (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2026) and the former European director and global curator of TED. He’s written for newspapers in Europe and the United States (including, for several years, an internet column for The New York Times), was head of digital strategy at the World Economic Forum and has co-founded two software firms. He lives in Switzerland. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx