Fake images of Trump hugging Fauci show how AI is creating fake

In an image similar to that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, former U.S. President Donald Trump is seen hugging his b te noire Dr. Anthony Fauci, who beams in response. In another, Trump is kissing Fauci on the nose.

These images published by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' campaign this week demonstrate how the 2024 Republican White House contenders have elevated their war of words into the AI-driven social media arena, interspersing fact with fiction.

The pictures form part of a video that DeSantis' rapid response team shared on Twitter. In a statement, the New York Times criticizes Trump for not firing Fauci, the former top U.S. infectious disease official whose push for COVID-19 restrictions turned him into a boogeyman for many conservatives.

The footage is apparently real of Donald Trump at press conferences and interviews. But at the 25-second mark, six images appear of Trump and Fauci, including three showing them hugging or kissing.

The images are likely AI-generated, according to an analysis of traces left by synthetic image generators, Stamm said. Our results consistently output a decision that these images are fake, he said.

The footage does not disclose any potential AI use, and the DeSantis campaign did not respond to a question about whether the images were fake or whether AI was used to create them.

But their appearance in the presidential campaign of a leading candidate shows how the technology is turbocharging its way into the 2024 presidential race, as a raft of new generative AI tools make it cheap and easy to create convincing deepfakes.

It was particularly sneaky to intermix the real and the fake images, said digital image forensics pioneer Hany Farid, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

The DeSantis campaign has been consistently posting fake images and false talking points to smear the governor. Donald Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, has actually used images of his rival to attack DeSantis, his closest rival.

He appears to have primarily shared obviously fake content, for example an image of DeSantis riding a rhinoceros, a suggestion that the governor is a Republican in Name Only RINO. He did not immediately respond, nor did a representative of Dr. Fauci.

Drexel professor Stamm's forensics analysis tool suggests that the images were made using an AI model known as a diffusion model, which underpins popular AI image generation products like DALL-E and Stability AI.

So far, the only high-profile AI-generated political ad in the U.S. has been one published by the Republican National Committee in late April. The RNC's 30th ad, which the RNC described as being completely generated by AI, used fake images to suggest a cataclysmic scenario should Biden be reelected, with China invading Taiwan and San Francisco shutting down due to crime.

No one is certain where the generative AI road leads or how to effectively guard against its power for mass misinformation, especially as AI improves in quality.

At some point the AI systems will be outputting images that have no differences from real images, said James O'Brien, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. There will be nothing to detect at that point.