MAGA influencers are turning to generative AI to fabricate photos of presidential candidate Donald Trump alongside smiling Black voters, according to a report from the BBC — yet another sign that the threat of AI-driven misinformation to America’s ongoing election cycle is no longer an imminent danger, but one that’s already taking root.
Two images were at the center of the BBC’s investigation: the first being a picture of Trump surrounded by and hugging a group of smiling Black women, which was shared to Facebook in November 2023 by conservative radio jockey Mark Kaye, and the second an image of the former president sitting on a stoop with a group of young Black men, which appears to have been first shared to X-formerly-Twitter in October 2023 by an account called “Trump History.” The latter photo has been kicking around X in the months since it was first posted, though picked up renewed steam this year when a a blue-checkmark MAGA influencer dubbed “Shaggy” posted the image with the false claim that it was snapped after Trump halted his motorcade to “take pictures with young men that waved him down.”
Though each photo contains telltale signs of AI generation — mushy, strange fingers, missing appendages, and more of the like — an alarming number of social media users were seemingly duped by the AI-spun imagery.
In other words, given Trump’s push to win over Black voters, it’s not surprising to see MAGA pundits continue to use AI as a means to chip away at the former president’s racist image — without the candidate doing the work of actually going out and meeting Black voters, that is.
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Article URL : https://sg.news.yahoo.com/maga-uses-ai-invent-pictures-205036598.html