Trump’s post of fake Taylor Swift endorsement is his latest embrace of AI-generated images

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has been active on his social accounts as Democrats gather for their convention in Chicago, but some of his posts don’t have much to do with reality.

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention, he posted a fake image of someone who looks like Vice President Kamala Harris addressing what appears to be a communist rally in Chicago with a depiction of a red banner with a communist symbol. That followed his repost of a phony video of himself dancing next to billionaire Elon Musk, one of his most vocal supporters.

Just before the convention kicked off, he reposted an image of Taylor Swift in an Uncle Sam outfit and accepted her endorsement for his campaign, which she had never given.

They’re the latest examples of how Trump is promoting images produced by artificial intelligence tools to attack his opponents or create illusions of support around his own campaign. It’s in keeping with a long-standing strategy in which Trump amplifies messages – from QAnon adherents to those who deny the results of fair elections — to score political points and satisfy his base by promoting alternate realities.

Some of the images and videos Trump has shared are cartoonish or obviously fake. Yet the rise in AI-generated content across political social media concerns experts who say it can be used to push more insidious and believable disinformation. As fake images, videos and audio clips created by generative AI models begin to saturate social media, they also risk eroding people’s trust in what they see and hear.

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