Fake AI photos of Trump with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein flood internet
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A billboard in New York's Times Square on July 23 featuring late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein calls for the release of the Epstein files.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
- AI-generated fake photos and videos showing Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and underage girls are circulating online, gaining millions of views.
- These deepfakes emerged amid Trump's attempts to distance himself from Epstein, with no authentic images existing of them with underage girls.
- The spread of "AI slop" is blurring reality online, with platforms reducing content moderation and Trump's files remaining unreleased.
AI generated
WASHINGTON – Fake artificial intelligence (AI) generated photos and videos purporting to show US President Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein socialising with underage girls have flooded social media, racking up millions of views, researchers said on July 25.
The surge in deepfakes comes as Mr Trump – frequently photographed with Epstein during their 15-year friendship – attempts to distance himself from the disgraced financier, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
One widely circulated AI-generated video appears to show Mr Trump and Epstein leering at a group of young girls dancing, with the song Is It A Crime? by the English band Sade added as background music.
At least two other fake photos appear to show the pair on a couch alongside underage girls.
Another such photo purports to shows Mr Trump dancing with a teenage girl on Epstein’s private island. Overlaying the image is the caption: “Trump was in his 50s when this was taken. What kind of man does that?”
At least seven such AI-generated images and one video cumulatively garnered more than 7.2 million views across social media platforms, according to a conservative estimate by disinformation watchdog group NewsGuard.
The watchdog said it used multiple detection tools, including Hive and IdentifAI, to establish that the content was fabricated using AI tools and the actual number of views was likely much higher than its manual tally of high-engagement posts.
Mr Trump’s ties to Epstein are extensive, and the pair were frequently pictured partying together during their friendship before they fell out in 2004 over a property deal.
But there appear to be no known authentic photographs of the pair with underage girls or of Mr Trump visiting Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, NewsGuard said.
So-called AI slop – low-quality visual content generated using cheap and widely available AI tools – increasingly appears to be flooding social media sites, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
Many content creators on YouTube and TikTok offer paid courses on how to monetise viral AI slop on tech platforms, many of which have reduced their reliance on human fact-checkers and scaled back content moderation.
AI-generated images of Mr Trump spread rapidly after the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department said in a July 7 memo that there was no proof that Epstein kept a “client list”
Mr Trump’s core Make America Great Again, or Maga, base erupted in anger
Even some within the Republican President’s own party have demanded the files be released, but his administration has declined to do so. Fake images appear to be gaining traction in that vacuum.
The Wall Street Journal reported on July 23 that Mr Trump’s name was among hundreds found during an official review of the files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.
The US leader filed a US$10 billion (S$12.8 billion) defamation suit
