Fake AI videos of Trump getting arrested, Putin jailed swamp the internet
- 24 Mar 2023
Gulf Today Report
The internet is awash in fake AI videos of former American President Donald Trump being arrested and Russian leader Vladimir Putin jailed. This comes amid news that Trump faces possible criminal charges and the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin.
The images show Trump being tackled by riot-gear-clad New York City police officers. Russian President Vladimir Putin is in a grey prison uniform behind the bars of a dimly lit concrete cell.
The images with intricate details have inundated Twitter and other platforms in recent days.
A videograb shows Putin behind bars.
The pictures — and scores of variations littering social media — were produced using increasingly sophisticated and widely accessible image generators powered by artificial intelligence.
Experts say the images carry an ominous message. They are the forerunners of a new reality: waves of fake photos and videos flooding social media after major news events and further muddying fact and fiction at crucial times for society, according to the Independent.
Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism collective, used the latest version of the AI image generator tool to conjure up scores of dramatic images of Trump’s fictional arrest.
The visuals, which have been shared and liked thousands of times, shows a posse of uniformed officers grabbing the Republican billionaire and violently pulling him down onto the pavement, according to the Independent.
We are living in a highly digital-driven age. There is tremendous focus on artificial intelligence, which is calling the shots in several spheres. AI-backed robots are doing the jobs of human beings, whether it is welcoming visitors to Dubai or presenting news in India, as happened with Sana, India Today Group’s first AI news anchor, a few days ago.
The problem is that with all things good, comes a distorted portrayal of the goody-goody image. And that is something we should guard against.