AI images of people – such as women in military contexts – are making money and serving as propaganda, researchers say

AI images of people – such as women in military contexts – are making money and serving as propaganda, researchers say

Online content creators are not just building fake images and videos of prominent public figures, they are also fabricating people and using them in military contexts, which can make them money and even serve as effective propaganda, according to artificial intelligence researchers.

Some of these online avatars are sexualized images of women wearing camouflage garb that have generated a significant audience and helped create an idealized image of political figures like Donald Trump, even if the viewer knows the content is not real, according to experts.

“We are blending the lines between political cartoons and reality,” said Daniel Schiff, an assistant professor of technology policy at Purdue University and co-director of the Governance and Responsible AI Lab (Grail). “A lot of people feel like these images or videos or the stories they convey, feel true.”

The amount of political deepfakes has increased dramatically in recent years, according to a Grail database. Since the start of 2025, the organization has catalogued more than 1,000 English language social media posts featuring fake images or videos of prominent political figures and politically important social issues and events.

  • Pirate2377@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    7 hours ago

    What was that phrase that Ben Shapiro (the former face of the online right) used to be famous for again?

  • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    8·
    17 hours ago

    Same principle as political comics, the value is that people feel the comic removes a mask from reality and depicts how things really are, thus qualifying it as essentially more referent to reality than reality itself. But of course this is only ever just a reflection of their own internally constructed internal reality, and they pick the comic that is the best mirror of that.

    • BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world
      2·
      8 hours ago

      Another thing to consider is the fact that people can form false memories. A person might know at the time of exposure that the misinformation is misinformation, but he might misremember it as a fact after repeated exposure.

  • etherphon@piefed.worldEnglish
    1·
    13 hours ago

    I’ve literally never uttered or thought that phrase in my life before, if something isn’t true it’s not true. There is no feelings to it. Anyways, it’s probably best not to expose yourself to these images if at all possible, but of course, people are going to keep using these platforms because they’re fucking stupid.