AI deepfake images spread across Twitter showing former president Donald Trump running from New York police and being arrested.
What is the Complete Story?
The Manhattan grand jury indicted Donald Trump for his involvement in hush money payments during his 2016 campaign to an adult movie actress Stormy Daniels. After this indictment, Trump would become the first former president to face a criminal charge.
AI-generated images showing Trump running from the New York police and being arrested are taking over Twitter. These pictures are fetching a lot of attention and more than 4 million views on social media.
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
The former president is seen struggling to run away from the authorities in the fabricated images.
From Where Trump’s Deepfake Images Originated?
Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump's arrest. pic.twitter.com/4D2QQfUpLZ
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
Founder of investigative collective Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins, made a statement that making Trump’s deepfake pictures of getting arrested while waiting for his arrest. According to Eliot, images were created using an artificial intelligence text-to-image generator Midjourney.
Eliot added that the victim used a text prompt for many images, Trump falling over while getting arrested. Another picture showed garbled text on the police officer’s uniforms with distorted hands and faces.
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
The collection of deepfakes also includes former president Trump along with his wife, Melania Trump and son, Donald Trump Jr. protesting the arrest. Another image showed former president Trump being arrested and sitting quitely behind the bars.
Meanwhile, in AI Trump world: pic.twitter.com/8pzeIZws0k
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 21, 2023
However, the image showing five officers holding Trump seems like it was not created by an AI software. But still, it showed the hallmarks of some AI-generated pictures.
What’s Next?
Eliot made a statement that the Trump arrest was casually showing how bad and good Midjourney was at rendering real scenes, such as the former president with three legs and a police belt.
He added that people would realise Donald Trump has two legs, not three, but it appears it hasn’t stopped people from thinking them off as genius, highlighting the lack of thinking skills.
Some of these fabricated images were widely shared by Twitter users who claimed these were real. However, the New York Department has also confirmed that the former president has not been arrested yet.
Leave a comment