WASHINGTON – A falsified photograph of an explosion near the Pentagon spread widely on social media on Monday morning, briefly sending US stocks lower in possibly the first instance of an artificial intelligence-generated image moving the market.
It soon spread on Twitter accounts that reach millions of followers, including the Russian state-controlled news network RT and the financial news site ZeroHedge, a participant in the social media company’s new Twitter Blue verification system. Ahead of official sources refuting the photo and the Twitter accounts that spread it, people pointed out that the image may have been generated by artificial intelligence.
As the facts emerged, Twitter accounts responsible for spreading the photo began to delete their tweets or post corrections. RT and ZeroHedge deleted tweets with the image, and ZeroHedge said the photo had been confirmed as fake.