Fake AI image of Pentagon explosion puts Twitter's paid Blue tick in question

IANS

New Delhi, May 23

The AI-generated image of an explosion at Pentagon that appeared on several verified Twitter accounts has once again put Twitter's paid verification programme in question that allows anyone to pay $8 a month and get the verified Blue tick.

Several media outlets and millions of Twitter users took the fake verified Twitter account 'Bloomberg Feed' for a real Bloomberg-affiliated account, as it had a blue check.

Earlier today an apparent AI-generated photo showed a fake explosion near the US Pentagon. The news was shared by Russian state-media RT on Twitter, which helped it go viral.

It was also tweeted by a verified Twitter account called “BloombegFeed” which has now been suspended.… pic.twitter.com/KN1wOptlRb

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 22, 2023

Twitter suspended that account later but the damage was already done.

The fake tweet spooked some investors. The S&P 500 dropped sharply in the minutes after the image was amplified by well-followed accounts. It later recovered those losses, reports NBC News.

The image depicted a large plume of smoke next to a rectangular building with only a passing resemblance to the Pentagon.

Russian state-controlled news network RT also shared the image, according to screenshots that users captured before the tweet was deleted.

Several Twitter accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, like Deltaone, OSINTdefender and Whale Chart shared it, reports TechCrunch.

The incident also raised the question of how generative AI could be used to trick users at a mass level.

The Arlington, Virginia, fire department tweeted that "there is NO explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon." After the fake Pentagon image went viral, a copycat hoaxer also pushed a similar image of the White House on fire.

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