From a fabricated image of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin dancing in the snow alongside a polar bear to a fake photo of European leaders standing solemnly outside the Oval Office, AI-driven disinformation is undermining efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
This online deception, often referred to as “AI slop,” demonstrates how easily artificial intelligence tools can saturate the internet with misleading or satirical content tied to significant global events.
Such fabrications also reveal the difficulty of controlling false narratives, especially as tech platforms incentivize creators with monetization rewards for viral posts.
One widely circulated image, for example, falsely depicted French President Emmanuel Macron and other European officials waiting dejectedly in a White House hallway with bowed heads, mocking their role as mediators in the conflict.
“This is utter humiliation of these corrupt scumbags. Absolutely beautiful,” said one post on X from a conservative political commentator that AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation about Ukraine.
Such posts — in multiple languages including Greek, German, and French — gained traction as European leaders joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House Monday for talks with Trump following the US president’s summit with Putin in Alaska.
Red Carpet Brawl
AFP fact-checkers identified visual inconsistencies that indicate the image, including Macron, was AI-generated. Some of the individuals depicted in the image also do not match those seen in official photographs from the high-stakes meeting.
Macron and other European leaders represented a group of Ukraine’s allies known as the “Coalition of the Willing” for White House consultations.
But multiple pro-Kremlin sources sharing the AI-generated image ridiculed them as the “coalition of those in waiting.”
The image was also amplified by sites operated by the Pravda network, a well-resourced Moscow-based operation known to circulate pro-Russian narratives globally, the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said in a report.
The falsehood was an illustration of how “pro-Kremlin sources often seize on high-profile meetings involving European leaders to spread false claims,” NewsGuard said.
In other viral posts, an AI-generated clip purported to show Trump and Putin skidding down snow-covered slopes, eating ice cream beside a snowman, and waltzing with a polar bear to country music.
And in another AI video, Trump and Putin were depicted brawling on a red carpet leading from an airplane staircase, trading punches and kicks as secret service agents watched in the background.
The tongue-in-cheek posts offer a window into a social media landscape increasingly filled with AI-generated memes, videos, and images competing for attention with — and sometimes drowning out — authentic content.
As tech platforms scale back content moderation, AI videos spread rapidly, muddying the waters around serious diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war in Ukraine.
Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending American troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit.
Ukraine Deal Would Help Him ‘Get To Heaven’: Trump
“I hear I’m not doing well — I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole! But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
By traditional yardsticks, the three-times-married, twice-impeached Trump is no saint.
The billionaire Republican has been embroiled in a number of scandals over the years and is the first president to have a criminal conviction, in his instance, a hush money case involving payouts to a porn star.
But Trump has taken on an increasingly religious tone since surviving an assassination attempt last year. He said at his inauguration in January that he had been “saved by God to make America great again.”
Boasting strong support from America’s religious right, Trump has embraced the trappings of faith far more strongly in his second term in the White House.
He has notably appointed an official spiritual adviser, Paula White, who has led a number of prayer gatherings that have seen attendees lay their hands on Trump at White House events.
Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday she believed “the president was serious” about his Ukraine comments.
“I think the president wants to get to heaven, as I hope we all do in this room,” the 27-year-old Leavitt — who herself holds prayer sessions before her briefings — told reporters.
- Via: Agence France-Presse
- Content and headlines modified by ET Desk
