Misinformation Unleashed: How AI Tools Are Distorting Narratives Around LA Protests

As protests against Trump’s immigration raids rages across the country, machine-generated deepfakes spread by partisan outrage merchants are pouring fuel on the situation. For example, one rioter admitted to being"paid to be here". There’s also an image of a National Guard soldier filming himself being bombarded by "balloons full of oil," a young man declaring his intention to "peacefully protest", before throwing a Molotov cocktail.

Fake Generative AI Content

Fake AI-generated videos, photos, and factoids about the ongoing protests in LA are spreading like wildfire across social media, not least on Elon Musk's anything-goes social network X (formerly Twitter). Made using freely available video and image generation software, these wholly synthetic chunks of outrage usually confirm some pre-existing narrative about the protests — such as the baseless idea that they are being covertly funded and equipped by mysterious outside factions.

While some are technically labelled as parodies, many users miss these disclaimers and assume that the realistic-looking footage is an actual document of events on the ground.

Another fake video posted on X features a male influencer wearing a too-clean T-shirt in the thick of a riot. "Why are you rioting?" he asks a masked man. "I don't know, I was paid to be here, and I just wanna destroy stuff," the man replies.

Fact-checking AI with AI

Meanwhile, chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and X's built-in Grok have been giving false answers to users' questions about events in the City of Angels. Both Grok and ChatGPT wrongly insisted that photos of National Guard members crammed together sleeping on the floor in LA this week "likely originated" in Afghanistan in 2021, according to CBS News.

It also reportedly claimed that a viral photo of bricks piled up on a pallet — which right-wing disinformation merchants had touted as proof of outside funding — was "likely" taken from the LA protests. In fact the photo showed a random street in New Jersey, but even when informed of the truth AI stuck to its guns.

AI-generated fakes are merely one new instrument in a long-established orchestra of disinformation. Photos recycled from past protests or events, photos taken out of context, and disguised video game footage — all commonplace among partisan outrage-peddlers since at least 2020 — are being shared widely, including by Republican senator Ted Cruz.

"Pictures are easily manipulated; that idea has been there," James Cohen, a media professor and expert on internet literacy at CUNY Queens College, told Politico.

"But when it comes to videos, we’ve just been trained as an individual society to believe videos. Up until recently, we haven’t really had the opportunity to assume videos could be faked at the scale that it’s being faked at this point.”

Spreading False Narratives 

Most of the videos seen by The Independent were evidently targeted at a conservative audience, designed to reinforce or reference right-wing talking points. At least one TikTok account, however, with more than 300,000 views on its videos as of Wednesday evening, was evidently aimed at progressives interested in stirring messages of solidarity with immigrants.

Some are obviously jokes; others, ambiguous jokes. Often there is a tag indicating that the video is AI-generated. But in most cases this crucial information is easily missed.

While AI-generated videos can be difficult to tell from the real thing, there are ways. The Better Business Bureau also recommends scrutinizing key details such as fingers and coat buttons, which often don't make sense on close inspection. Writing, too, is frequently blurred and illegible: just a jumble of letters or letter-like forms.

Background figures may behave strangely or repetitively, or even move in ways that are physically impossible. If in doubt, Google it and see if any trustworthy media organizations or individual journalists have confirmed or debunked what you're seeing.