Pentagon deepfake 'explosion' jitters US stock market
A deepfake photograph and accompanying report of an explosion near to the Pentagon outside Washington DC led to a 0.26 percent fall in the US stock market in four minutes. A verified Twitter account called @BloombergFeed impersonating a Bloomberg profile had shared a photo of plumes of smoke billowing over a large white building with the words 'Large explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C - Initial Report'. As noted by the Insider , the photograph featured 'some of the hallmarks of AI-generated images'. The columns on the supposed building in the hoax photo varied in size and the fence appeared to blend into the sidewalk in some places. The photograph and report, which were later deleted, had quickly gone viral on Twitter and were retweeted by high-profile Twitter Russian news account @RT and @DeItaone. The report was rebutted as false by US authorities . System 🤖 Unknown Operator: X Corp/Twitter Developer: Country: USA Sector: Govt - defence Purpose: Scare/confuse/destabilise Technology: Deepfake; Machine learning Issue: Dual use ; Mis/disinformation
- Date it happened
- 2023-05-01
- Organisation involved
- xAI
This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.
This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.