AI-altered photos and videos of Minneapolis shootings blur reality

An AI-enhanced image depicts a man resembling Alex Pretti filming an ICE officer with his cellphone. Photo by NBC News via Facebook

NBC News

From Facebook and TikTok to Instagram and X, AI-manipulated images and videos depicting Alex Pretti’s final moments have proliferated across the internet since his fatal shooting by federal officers in Minneapolis last weekend.

The rapid spread of media altered by artificial intelligence, much of which shows Pretti collapsing in the seconds after he was shot, has clouded key details of the shooting on social networks. Unlike other AI-generated deepfakes that portray entirely unrealistic scenes and are easily identified as fake, many of the AI-altered depictions of Pretti’s shooting appear to have been based on verified images, mirroring reality enough to confuse and mislead many online.

And even as awareness of the capabilities of advanced artificial intelligence spreads, some online are extending their skepticism of authentic media, falsely claiming that legitimate photos and videos of Pretti have been altered by AI.

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