Journalist Eliot Higgins shared fabricated photos that depict former President Trump being arrested by police officers.
The fake images have gained traction on social media, raising concerns about the spread of deepfakes and misinformation online as AI image generators improve and become more accessible.
- Higgins said he used the latest version of the Midjourney AI engine to generate the realistic-looking images, which depict Trump's fake arrest in light of a possible indictment of the former president.
- After the images went viral online, Higgins claims he was banned from the service by Midjourney, which had yet to confirm the ban.
- Tests done online indicate that Midjourney has now barred users from using text prompts with the words "arrest" and "Donald Trump."
- Higgins is the founder of Bellingcat, an open-source investigative journalism site based in the Netherlands.
- He told Ars that he has noticed many people "who don't seem to have been aware of Midjourney's existence or what it's capable of."
- On Twitter, some of his images were viewed over 4.5 million times. They now contain a community note labeling them as fake.
- Midjourney released version 5 of its popular AI text-to-image creator last week.
- Compared to prior versions, V5 is better at generating realistic-looking hands, like displaying the appropriate number of fingers, as well as improved-looking eyes and faces.
