President Trump on Tuesday revealed a new strategy he could employ for dealing with unwelcome or unflattering information: blame artificial intelligence.
With fake videos generated by A.I. swirling around the internet, it’s become increasingly difficult for many users of social media to separate truth from fiction — a point Mr. Trump both lamented and said he could potentially use to his advantage.
“One of the problems we have with A.I., it’s both good and bad,” he said. “If something happens, really bad, just blame A.I. But also they create things. You know, it works both ways. If something happens, it’s really bad, maybe I’ll have to just blame A.I.”
The subject arose after Mr. Trump contradicted his own press office by claiming a video that was highly circulated this weekend, in which what appeared to be a black trash bag was thrown from a White House window, may have been fabricated.
Armchair pundits responded to the video with their own theories of what might have been in the bag — some for fun, some conspiratorial. In an effort to tamp down on the speculation, the White House press office confirmed on Monday that the video was real, but said it was nothing nefarious. It was merely “a contractor who was doing regular maintenance while the president was gone,” the statement said.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Mr. Trump about the video on Tuesday while the president took questions in the Oval Office. After Mr. Trump said he hadn’t seen it, Mr. Doocy showed him the clip on his phone.
“That’s probably A.I.-generated,” Mr. Trump said, before describing how heavy the windows are, and how difficult they are to open.
“My wife was complaining about it the other day,” Mr. Trump said. “She said, ‘I’d love to have a little fresh air come in,’ but you can’t — they’re bulletproof. Number one, they’re sealed. And number two, each window weighs about 600 pounds. You have to be pretty strong to open them up.”
Mr. Trump does have experience with spreading false information made by artificial intelligence. In July, he reposted a fake video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. And the president has long attempted to blur the line between truth and fiction when he finds the truth is not to his liking — such as his persistent false statements about the 2020 election results.
But artificially generated images and videos are sometimes virtually indistinguishable from real images, and have contributed to creating a world where truth is even more endangered, a development that Mr. Trump said was frightening.
The president described watching a video that appeared to include images of him from throughout his life, only to learn it was not real.
“I see so many phony things,” Mr. Trump said. “I saw something, as I was growing up from the time I was a baby till now, I said, ‘Who did that?’ It was A.I. generated. So it’s a little bit scary to be honest with you.”
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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