AI Platform Reportedly Banned Journalist Over Fake Trump Arrest Footage
AI Platform Reportedly Banned Journalist Over Fake Trump Arrest Footage
Enlarge / AI generated photo simulating possible arrest of Donald Trump, created by Eliot Higgins using Midjourney v5.
@EliotHiggins on Twitter
Roughly 50 AI-generated images imagining what former President Donald Trump's arrest would look like went viral on Twitter yesterday. The images have confused some users because the Midjourney v5 engine used to create them generates such realistic content.
Today, the Midjourney user behind the images, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, told Buzzfeed News that he was banned from Midjourney because of the images. Buzzfeed also reported that Midjourney banned the use of the word "arrest" in text prompts to generate images.
Midjourney has yet to confirm the ban. An Ars test indicates that prompts using Donald Trump's name also appear to be blocked on the engine, instead throwing an error message stating that the prompt has been blocked because "it may conflict with our content policy ". We received the same error message when we used prompts that included other Trump surnames and all presidents' names. However, other celebrity names, like former NFL player Tom Brady, still seem acceptable in prompts.
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Higgins told Buzzfeed he understands why Midjourney may have banned him, saying it "pushed my luck" creating the Twitter feed that went viral. Higgins told Ars that responses to the images were generally positive, but he "also angered a number of Trump fans."
"I didn't mean to do any clever criticism or anything like that," Higgins told Buzzfeed, saying he was just having fun imagining Trump's arrest with the footage. . "But then it kind of took on a life of its own."
Higgins told Ars that "what really stood out to him" was "the number of people who don't seem to have known about Midjourney's existence or what he's capable of." He thinks the creation of the images "has had a positive impact on raising awareness of the type of images that can be faked now" and said AI platforms like Midjourney "probably shouldn't train their datasets. about the people they don't want to recreate".
Yesterday, Higgins explained to Wired how Twitter users can avoid being duped by convincing AI-generated images like Trump's fake arrest footage. Higgins noted that celebrities are easier targets for deepfakes because "clearly the more famous a person is, the more images the AI has had to learn," Higgins said.
"So very famous people are extremely well rendered, while less famous people are usually a little wonky," Higgins told Wired.
On Twitter, images of Higgins are now tagged with a community note saying they are fake. Twitter policy states that users "may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that may cause harm" and that these tags "help people understand their authenticity" and "provide additional context". p>
Higgins' full thread is still available on Twitter, where some images have been viewed 4.8 million times to date...
Enlarge / AI generated photo simulating possible arrest of Donald Trump, created by Eliot Higgins using Midjourney v5.
@EliotHiggins on Twitter
Roughly 50 AI-generated images imagining what former President Donald Trump's arrest would look like went viral on Twitter yesterday. The images have confused some users because the Midjourney v5 engine used to create them generates such realistic content.
Today, the Midjourney user behind the images, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, told Buzzfeed News that he was banned from Midjourney because of the images. Buzzfeed also reported that Midjourney banned the use of the word "arrest" in text prompts to generate images.
Midjourney has yet to confirm the ban. An Ars test indicates that prompts using Donald Trump's name also appear to be blocked on the engine, instead throwing an error message stating that the prompt has been blocked because "it may conflict with our content policy ". We received the same error message when we used prompts that included other Trump surnames and all presidents' names. However, other celebrity names, like former NFL player Tom Brady, still seem acceptable in prompts.
Enlarge
Higgins told Buzzfeed he understands why Midjourney may have banned him, saying it "pushed my luck" creating the Twitter feed that went viral. Higgins told Ars that responses to the images were generally positive, but he "also angered a number of Trump fans."
"I didn't mean to do any clever criticism or anything like that," Higgins told Buzzfeed, saying he was just having fun imagining Trump's arrest with the footage. . "But then it kind of took on a life of its own."
Higgins told Ars that "what really stood out to him" was "the number of people who don't seem to have known about Midjourney's existence or what he's capable of." He thinks the creation of the images "has had a positive impact on raising awareness of the type of images that can be faked now" and said AI platforms like Midjourney "probably shouldn't train their datasets. about the people they don't want to recreate".
Yesterday, Higgins explained to Wired how Twitter users can avoid being duped by convincing AI-generated images like Trump's fake arrest footage. Higgins noted that celebrities are easier targets for deepfakes because "clearly the more famous a person is, the more images the AI has had to learn," Higgins said.
"So very famous people are extremely well rendered, while less famous people are usually a little wonky," Higgins told Wired.
On Twitter, images of Higgins are now tagged with a community note saying they are fake. Twitter policy states that users "may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that may cause harm" and that these tags "help people understand their authenticity" and "provide additional context". p>
Higgins' full thread is still available on Twitter, where some images have been viewed 4.8 million times to date...
Enlarge / AI generated photo simulating possible arrest of Donald Trump, created by Eliot Higgins using Midjourney v5.
@EliotHiggins on Twitter
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