Really early photography was so poor compared to modern HD images that obvious fakes fooled "serious" people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies vs Arthur Conan Doyle, for example. But yes, it required more effort, and the effort reduction for fakes offered by AI is extremely powerful.

(There is also the sad business of the 1932 Pulitzer https://www.pulitzer.org/news/statement-walter-duranty )