A fake, apparently AI-generated image of an explosion outside the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, briefly went viral just after 10 a.m. local time on the morning of Monday, May 22.
The original image was shared by a “verified” account posing as a Bloomberg News feed and was then reposted by dozens of other blue-tick Twitter accounts – one of which was the ‘RT’ Russian propaganda channel.
Prime example of the dangers in the pay-to-verify system: This account, which tweeted a (very likely AI-generated) photo of a (fake) story about an explosion at the Pentagon, looks at first glance like a legit Bloomberg news feed. pic.twitter.com/SThErCln0p
— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) May 22, 2023
Within an hour of it appearing, government officials and the Arlington police stepped in to clarify that the image was a fake: “There is NO explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon reservation, and there is no immediate danger or hazards to the public.”
The rebuttal was not made in time to prevent a brief drop in the stock-market.
Even though some accounts quickly apologized or deleted the posts, it continued to be shared by accounts for several hours.
This is not the first time that misinformation has spread from verified accounts, some of which have up to a million followers, since Elon Musk took ownership of the platform in October 2022. These verification marks were once viewed as a guarantee of authenticity, but now seems just confirmation the tweeter has paid $8 a month to get a premium account.
On May 5, shortly after the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, several Twitter accounts shared the false information that Russian military jets had been armed with nuclear payloads aimed at Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Pope in a puffer jacket
Images generated by the AI tool Midjourney
People have already been fooled, on Twitter and other social platforms, by AI-generated images which appear to be real photographs. This includes images that went viral of the Pope wearing a puffer jacket, in early April; former US President Donald Trump being arrested, and even images of Russian President Putin greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on one knee and kissing his hand, both on March 20. The scary thing is that it seems many users believed all three were real events.
AI Image of ‘the arrest’ of Donald Trump
AI created by Eliot Higgins
Artificial intelligence engines have been growing exponentially in recent years, prompting governments to consider legislation to control their use on social media such as forcing creators to label AI images as such.
The Biden Administration earlier this month unveiled plans to create national research institutes to evaluate AI technology and compel developers to behave responsibly in the light of potential “cybersecurity, biosecurity and safety” risks.
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Comments (2)
People might use AI for bad things such as spreading Christianity, which is an ideology with the violent torture a scapegoat as a central thesis.
@Ted Cruz,
Ignorance in action. Frightful.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
If you wish to gain knowledge on the subject of Christianity, then read this: “His One Life”. I'm the author. If you fear learning a little Christology, then don't read it and remain ignorant. WARNING: Reading “His One Life” could turn your world upside down.
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I can see a lot of benefits to Artificial Intelligence. For example in the future a Christian missionary could use it in the Great Commission to assist in reaching the unreached, Bible translation, Bible education, etc. In the world today, there are approximately 7,500 living languages; each language an ethnic group. The Bible has been translated into only 724 of those languages. AI could speed up this process exponentially. People could hear the Bible in their own language for the very first time. AI could even teach in remote villages. AI could be in the infancy of the greatest outreach and revival the world has ever seen. AI has a lot of potential good to offer the world.
Unfortunately there's no way to stop it from getting into the hands of bad people. AI will be used for very evil purposes. These fake news pictures are only the beginning. Evil people will dream up atrocities for AI to accomplish that good people can't even imagine. How do we keep AI away from bad people? There's no way you can.
Slava Ukraini!
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