As the ENACT initiative approaches the conclusion of its current activities, several of its recent Flash Reports remain highly relevant to the challenges being explored through DETECTOR.
The projects have different focuses, but ENACT’s work provides useful context around three areas that matter for synthetic media: victim impact, trustworthy AI use, and the wider digital investigation process.
AI and victims
ENACT’s work on the implications of AI for victims highlights an important point: AI-enabled harm is not only a technical problem.
Synthetic and manipulated media can affect victims in ways that extend far beyond the content itself, particularly where material is used for impersonation, abuse, exploitation or reputational harm.
Questions of accountability, rights, victim support and appropriate response therefore need to sit alongside technical detection, also recognising that AI-related harms may affect communities, organisations and society more broadly, not just individual victims. This changes both the scale and complexity of the challenges that practitioners and policymakers must address. In some cases, AI-enabled victimisation may also be difficult to recognise, creating additional challenges for support services, investigators and policymakers.
For DETECTOR, this is particularly relevant to training and capacity building. Practitioners need to understand not only how manipulated media may be identified, but also the wider consequences of how it is handled and interpreted.
Trustworthy AI in law enforcement
ENACT’s work on the AI Act and law enforcement also connects closely with DETECTOR.
Technologies designed to support synthetic media detection may ultimately contribute to sensitive forensic and investigative decisions, meaning issues such as transparency, validation, documentation, human oversight and accountability are central to their responsible use.
This reinforces an important principle for DETECTOR: technical capability alone is not enough. Practitioners must also understand the limitations of AI-supported outputs and how those results should be interpreted, documented and communicated.
These themes can be incorporated into practical training scenarios rather than treated only as abstract legal or ethical considerations.
Detection within the wider investigation process
A further ENACT report explores digital tools for online crime monitoring. While this is not DETECTOR’s primary area of work, it provides useful context around how suspicious content may first be identified or encountered during online investigations. From a DETECTOR perspective, this can then connect to later questions around preservation, authenticity assessment, forensic interpretation and evidential use.
This broader perspective is important for training. Detection should not be taught as an isolated technical activity; practitioners also need to understand how manipulated material should be preserved, assessed and communicated within existing investigative and forensic workflows.
Taking the knowledge forward
These reports provide useful reference material as DETECTOR develops its own training and knowledge-building activities.
Rather than recreate content that already exists, DETECTOR is looking to reuse, signpost and build upon established European work, while focusing on complementary resources on areas where the project can add specific value: synthetic media detection and verification, forensic interpretation, practitioner decision-making and responsible use of detection technologies.
As ENACT concludes its current work, we are pleased to help extend the visibility of these outputs and encourage practitioners, researchers and policymakers working in this space to explore them further.
