As New York prosecutors wrap up their probe into whether Trump engaged in an illegal hush-money scheme involving an adult film actress, Twitter users saw fabricated images of Donald Trump getting arrested and dragged away by police. The images were generated by an AI software called Midjourney, and first shared on Twitter by British blogger Eliot Higgins.
The images gained millions of views, with some users captioning the images with false claims that the former president had been arrested. This prompted various news outlets to quickly fact-check the authenticity of the viral images and claims.
Misinformation experts warn the images are harbingers 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, as reported by The Associated Press. While the ability to manipulate photos and create fake images isn’t new, AI image generator tools by Midjourney, DALL-E and others are easier to use. They can quickly generate realistic images — complete with detailed backgrounds — on a mass scale with little more than a simple text input.
Currently, a grand jury in New York is weighing a possible indictment of Donald Trump on charges stemming from an investigation into a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, the BBC reports. Trump denies any wrongdoing.
While hush money is not illegal in itself, prosecutors say the way Trump documented the payment when he was running for president in 2016 amounts to falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanor — a criminal offense in New York.
In anticipation of protests for when the grand jury makes a decision, law enforcement in Washington, D.C., and New York have set up barricades in the area. Trump would become the first former or sitting president to ever be charged with a crime if an indictment is filed.