AI was likely behind fake footage of Pentagon explosion: NPR

An aerial view of the Pentagon on May 10, 2023. Footage purporting to show smoke rising from the US armed forces headquarters appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence tools.

Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

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Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

An aerial view of the Pentagon on May 10, 2023. Footage purporting to show smoke rising from the US armed forces headquarters appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence tools.

Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

A false report of an explosion at the Pentagon, along with an apparently AI-generated image, spread on Twitter on Monday morning, sending the stock market down briefly.

“There are NO explosions or incidents that occurred in or near the Pentagon stockpile, and there is no immediate danger or danger to the public,” the Pentagon Force Protection Agency said. of the Department of Defense and the Arlington County Fire Department in a joint statement. statement on Twitter.

The fake image circulating on Twitter showed a cloud of black smoke near an apartment building. Accounts displaying him claimed he represented the Pentagon.

But the picture was probably generated by artificial intelligenceexperts said, in an example of the potential for misuse of the increasingly popular and widespread technology that worries them.

“Look at the facade of the building and the way the fence blends in with the crowd barriers. There are also no other images, videos or people posting as first-hand witnesses,” Nick Waters of the band open source surveys Bellingcat writing on Twitter.

Soon, others apparently fake AI images purporting to show an explosion at the White House arose.

Major stock indexes briefly dipped on the false reports before recovering.

Many of the Twitter accounts that spread the hoax bore blue checks, signifying that the social network had verified that the account is who or what it claims to be. But under new owner Elon Musk, the company now gives a blue check to any account that pays for a monthly subscription to Twitter Blue.

Among the blue checking accounts that shared the fake Pentagon image were one impersonating Bloomberg News and the real account of Russian news service RT linked to the Kremlin.

RT later deleted their post. The fake Bloomberg account has been suspended by Twitter.

Twitter responded to a request for comment with an auto-reply containing a poo emoji.