An AI-generated fake image of an explosion at the Pentagon was shared on Twitter by verified accounts, causing brief confusion and a temporary stock market dip of 85 points before being debunked.
On Monday, May 22, 2023, an AI-generated image depicting a large explosion with black smoke near the Pentagon was shared on Twitter by multiple verified accounts, including one impersonating Bloomberg News called 'Bloomberg Feed.' The fake image showed blurry fence bars and building columns characteristic of AI-generated content, likely created by models like Stable Diffusion or Midjourney. The image was amplified by large accounts including Russia Today, which has over 3 million followers, before being quickly debunked by Arlington Fire Department and Pentagon officials who confirmed no explosion had occurred. The hoax caused the Dow Jones Industrial Index to drop 85 points within four minutes before rebounding once the image was revealed as fake. The incident highlighted vulnerabilities in Twitter's new pay-for-verification system under Elon Musk, where anyone can obtain a blue checkmark for $8 monthly without identity verification. The fake Bloomberg account had 224,000 tweets and fewer than 1,000 followers before being suspended. Multiple other accounts with verified status also shared the false report, demonstrating how AI-generated misinformation can rapidly spread on social media platforms and impact financial markets even when quickly debunked.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed