Purportedly AI-Generated Images Reportedly Spread Misinformation During Hurricane Helene Response
September 24, 2024
During Hurricane Helene (September 24-29, 2024), purportedly AI-generated images circulated on social media, reportedly misleading the public and hindering disaster response efforts. Reportedly fake images including animals stranded on rooftops and political figures in floodwaters added confusion and disrupted emergency management. The spread of these images allegedly exacerbated existing challenges, including power outages and communication failures, all of which led to complications providing accurate information to those in need.
- Alleged deployer
- unknown-deepfake-creators, partisan-social-media-influencers, unknown-actors, unknown-malicious-actors
- Alleged developer
- unknown-deepfake-technology-developers, unknown-ai-image-generator-technology-developers
- Alleged harmed parties
- hurricane-helene-victims, general-public, emergency-responders, communities-impacted-by-hurricane-helene
Source
Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/817
Data source
Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).
When citing the database as a whole, please use:
McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.
Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide
We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.