Governor of Texas Shares Fake AI Photo of Rescued American Soldier
The Governor of Texas Greg Abbott shared an AI-generated photo that falsely depicts a U.S. pilot who was rescued from Iran.
Abbott has faced ridicule over the photo, which even had a “Made with AI” tag attached to it. Abbott retweeted the photo on his X account, with the text: “This is so awesome.”
A Community Note was added to the post noting that, “no credible records exist for the image, which depicts telltale AI signs (handanomalies, gear deformities, lighting errors, etc.)”
Indeed no photos of the pilot of the downed U.S. F-15 fighter aircraft have been released, nor any identifying details of the United States Air Force member who was missing behind enemy lines for over 24 hours.
Abbott was criticized by Democratic Congressional candidate Fred Wellman. “You’re the governor of Texas and fell for a blatantly fake AI photo. What is wrong with you?” Wellman writes on X.
In one post that got over 300,000 views, Billy Binion, a reporter for Reason, called Abbott’s post “bleak.”
“I get that we’re in a new era, but we desperately need a new crash course in media literacy, or just a reminder to be remotely discerning. The governor of Texas should not be sharing an obviously fake photo from a slop account,” writes Binion.
Abbott does have form for this: just last month, he reposted a video from a World War II video game that he apparently thought was real footage of an American warship attacking an Iranian fighter jet. Abbott quickly deleted the clip that was from a game called “War Thunder.”
Concerning Times
Abboott is 68-years-old, and like many members of his baby boomer generation who did not grow up with computers, he is evidently not as digitally literate as he could be.
While there is little doubt that AI-generated media is getting harder and harder to spot, a photo of the rescued airman — which has been global news — can be easily checked by searching for it online to check whether a global picture agency such as Reuters, Associated Press, or Getty Images is distributing it to the media.
It’s highly unlikely that a random X account called “Missy in So Cal” has the world exclusive on a photo like that.
