Liberals Are Falling for Extremely Obvious AI Fakes

AI misinformation isn’t just for the right-wing boomers anymore. What once was mostly the domain of Facebook-bound conservatives desperate to believe welfare recipients are scamming the system has also seeped into the other side of the partisan divide.

Though research shows conservatives are much more likely to share misinformation than any other political persuasion, liberals seem to be playing catchup. Over the weekend, an AI-generated photo of Donald Trump using a walker went mega-viral on X-formerly-Twitter, gathering some 13.5 million views, according to the app’s admittedly dubious metrics.

Even if you don’t trust the view count, it’s hard to dismiss the nearly 100,000 likes and 6,000 comments on the post, which ranged from sarcastic missives about Trump’s health to angry rants about his policies. The post, uploaded by Democrat Party strategist Keith Edwards, was clearly meant as a jab at Trump’s executive order meant to halt all AI regulation at the state level.

“BREAKING: an image has leaked showing Trump using a walker moments after he signed an executive order banning states from regulating AI,” Edwards wrote, along with the lifelike image.

Though many of the posters under Edward’s post seemed to either be aware it was AI or simply notcare, it quickly broke containment, spreading to more credulous corners of the net. “Trump pictured using a walker after signing EO to deny state regulations against AI companies,” one anti-Trump poster parroted to its followers.

“Trump’s health can no longer be ignored now,” wrote the account Resist Persist on Facebook, gathering over 800 likes. “A picture was leaked of him using a walker, White House sources say he has been using a wheelchair at times, and we have all seen him sitting more over the past few months.”

Other examples of this kind of libslop abound, like California Governor Gavin Newsom’s AI-generated deepfake showing Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Stephen Miller being led away by the FBI in handcuffs. “Why are Democrats using the same AI slop that Republicans started using in the fall,” one commenter said. “We all agreed this is cringy shit.”

Back in 2024, some Democratic Party hopefuls spread an AI-modified image of Kamala Harris in a McDonalds uniform, apparently to boost her middle-class bonafides. “Hey MAGA cultists, explain this,” one poster challenged on Threads. In reality, the image had actually been generated by a pro-Trump poster and shared on X as a joke, where it soon spread beyond its original confines.

Other cases have involved generative AI voices, like the Joe Biden deepfake encouraging voters to “save their votes” for the November election, as opposed to the Democrat Party primary.

Whichever way you slice it, it seems that as generative AI becomes more sophisticated, the number of AI hoaxes on both sides of the aisle are only going up.

More on misinformation: Journalist Caught Publishing Fake Articles Generated by AI

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