AI-Generated Photos of Explosion at the Pentagon Go Viral, Cause Stock Market Selloff

Despite what you may have seen on social media earlier today, there have been no explosions at the Pentagon.

Several social media users and even verified Twitter accounts posted pictures seemingly from the Pentagon in Washington D.C. that showed a lot of smoke at the scene. The images briefly spread like wildfire throughout Twitter, and some news outlets overseas ran with the story.

The problem? The images were generated by AI.

Even worse, those reports appear to have led to a massive selloff on Wall Street before the market corrected upon realization that the story - and the images - were fake. Ultimately, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was only down about 50 points after the correction.

Still, it was a very noticeable blip in the markets.

Emergency response agencies in the area verified that there was no explosion at the Pentagon, with those agencies apparently being contacted repeatedly over the reports.

Concerns Over Artificial Intelligence

There has been a lot of concern in recent months about the capabilities of artificial intelligence and how some might not be able to differentiate what is real and what isn't. As reported earlier today, a Louisiana officer was recently targeted by an AI scam and is raising awareness about the dangers of these programs.

Most experts are warning about the rise of misinformation as AI continues to grow in popularity and capability. As the New York Post notes, experts are citing risks including the spread of “propaganda and untruth,” job losses, the development of “nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us,” and the risk of “loss of control of our civilization.”

The origins of the AI-generated photos of an explosion at the Pentagon remain unknown.