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DeSantis' campaign apparently used AI-created fake images showing Trump and Fauci hugging and kissing

Kelly McLaughlin   

DeSantis' campaign apparently used AI-created fake images showing Trump and Fauci hugging and kissing
  • DeSantis' campaign shared images of Trump and Fauci hugging in a Twitter video on June 5.
  • The photos are shared under the banner "Real Life Trump" in the campaign video.

A video shared by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign appears to feature AI-generated fake images of former President Donald Trump and former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci hugging and kissing.

The images were featured in a video shared by the DeSantis War Room's Twitter account on Monday, which emphasized the relationship between Trump and Fauci.

The clip included real clips of Trump and Fauci, who helped the US develop its COVID-19 response plan.

But in one clip that featured six images of the pair together, three appear to be AI-generated, media forensics experts told AFP.

DeSantis, DeSantis' campaign, and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Matt Wolking, of the Never Back Down super PAC backing DeSantis' presidential campaign, said in a statement to Insider: "No campaign has pushed more misleading deepfakes, false photoshops, and outright fabrications than the Trump campaign. It is 100% true that Donald Trump empowered and embraced Fauci — he even gave him a presidential commendation."

"It was sneaky to intermix what appears to be authentic photos with fake photos, but these three images are almost certainly AI-generated," Many Ford, a digital forensics expert and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.

Three photos in the collage — the top center, top right, and bottom left — are real images and can be found in records from Getty Images, the National Institutes of Health, and Reuters.

The three other photos — top left, bottom center, and bottom right — appear to be AI-generated and all show Fauci and Trump hugging. Two of the fake images show Trump kissing Fauci's face.

Insider could not find the origin of those three pictures. A reverse image search on Google couldn't find the source for any of them.

Farid told AFP that it's "highly likely" the photos are AI-generated.

Begun, the AI wars have

With the introduction of commercially viable AI technology, it was only a matter of time before image generators were used in the political arena.

Attack ads function well as a vehicle for misinformation — they are snappy, aim to appeal to their audiences' base instincts by catching their target in some sort of hypocrisy or contradiction, and historically cherry-pick context.

The DeSantis attack ad seems like a counter-punch to similar tactics employed by Trump's campaign.

At the end of May, Trump uploaded a two-minute clip on his Rumble account parodying DeSantis' Twitter Space debacle.

The video uses AI-voice generation to highlight a bumbling DeSantis speaking to the devil and Adolf Hitler in a chaotic "is this thing on," styled public announcement gone wrong.



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