From AFP
AI fakes of accused US press gala gunman flood social media
By Bill Mccarthy
Facebook has been overrun with low-effort AI fakes inventing biographical details and celebrity connections for the man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump at a Washington press gala Saturday.
Trump and senior administration officials were evacuated from the White House Correspondents' Association dinner as sounds of gunfire rang from a floor above the ballroom, where the suspect had attempted to sprint past security.
Within hours of authorities identifying the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of California, AI-generated images depicting him beside numerous celebrities pinballed across Facebook in posts saying he was their "former driver," "assistant" or "production crew member."
An AFP investigation found more than 50 public figures falsely associated with Allen, from actors Tom Hanks and Sydney Sweeney to musicians Chris Brown and Taylor Swift...
"Two years ago, you probably wouldn't have been able to make those images of him, because we could only really make compelling fakes of celebrities who had a large digital footprint from which the AI systems had been trained," said the University of California, Berkeley's Hany Farid, who is also chief science officer at GetReal Security. "Now, all I need is a single image of you."
Aaron Parnas, an independent journalist whose likeness appeared in AI-enabled posts claiming Allen worked for him, pleaded on Facebook for people to report the "completely fake" images...
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley
