The White House posted a digitally altered image of a demonstrator using AI tools, showing her crying and with darkened skin, after she was arrested for interrupting a church service in Minnesota.
On Thursday, the White House posted a digitally manipulated image of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer who was arrested for interrupting a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota on Sunday. The original image posted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem showed Armstrong appearing composed during her arrest. However, the White House version showed her appearing to be sobbing with darkened skin. The New York Times verified through Resemble.AI detection system that Noem's image was real while the White House version showed signs of AI manipulation on Armstrong's face. The Times was able to recreate nearly identical images to the White House version using Gemini and Grok generative AI tools from Google and Elon Musk's xAI. When questioned, the White House pointed to a message from deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr stating 'Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.' The doctored photograph could potentially hinder the Justice Department's prosecution of Armstrong, as her lawyers could claim improper extrajudicial statements or vindictive prosecution based on the manipulated image.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed