Recently, Donald Trump fans in Florida and Michigan have been auto-generating and spreading around faked “pictures” of Trump surrounded by crowds of Black supporters—and earning significant traction for doing so. Coming at a time when President Joe Biden is worried about losing the Black voters who came out for his 2020 election, the Trump images have become a whole new subgenre of A.I. sludge. And no one in any position of power appears to know what to do about it.
Last month, BBC Panorama reported on the proliferation of these deceitful likenesses. The first example displayed Trump at a Christmas party with his arm around a couple of Black women, one of whom is seen wearing a Pen & Pixel–style tank; another shows him sitting on a house porch with six young Black men, smiling with his hands clasped. Both images gained substantial traction on Facebook, sans disclosure that they were A.I.-generated, and were misleadingly appended as context for stories on Trump’s increasing appeal to Black voters.
That’s a good point. You can’t plant a seed anywhere and expect it to blossom. The soil needs to be primed to accept the seed.
I’m in the middle of reading an article about how phones and social media are affecting the mental health of the youth. We all believe this to be a fact yet the scientific evidence actually does not support it. It’s easier to convince people that something’s true when they already feel like it should be true. Where “should be true” (or want to be true) comes from for each individual is something to consider.