Andras Crow-Hreidar 
In a shocking incident that highlighted the dangerous consequences of artificial intelligence-powered fake news, a false image depicting an explosion near the Pentagon sent shockwaves through the stock market, causing a brief dip in trading .
On May 22, a Twitter account named Bloomberg Feed which has since been suspended, purportedly linked to the renowned media giant Bloomberg, shared a photograph showing a massive explosion near the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon .
Concerns Grow Over AI’s Role in Spreading False Information
This misleading news spread like wildfire and was amplified by various media outlets including Russia’s state media organ Russia Today and Indian media organization Republic . However both outlets promptly removed their posts upon discovering the fabricated nature of the news .
Officials responsible for Pentagon security confirmed that they were well aware of the circulating news and clarified that no such explosion or incident had occurred .
Stock Market Recovers as Fake News Exposed
As news of the hoax unfolded the impact on the stock market became evident . The S&P 500 index experienced a temporary drop of 0.26% . Fortunately the market swiftly recovered once the false nature of the news was exposed .
Some Twitter users have pointed out inconsistencies in that they think the image was created by artificial intelligence . These included the uneven façade of the building and the two different fences shown in the image appearing to merge .
AI-Generated Content Is Becoming a Problem
Artificial intelligence has previously been used to create fake news and misleading content . In early May, The Irish Times, an Irish newspaper, had to issue an apology after publishing an article entirely generated by an artificial intelligence system .
Deep fake technology created with artificial intelligence is often used in fraud attempts . It is known that fake videos of important names in the cryptocurrency industry are circulating . An example of such manipulation involved a fake video allegedly attributed to Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX .
As the spread of AI-powered fake news persists it becomes increasingly crucial for both individuals and organizations to remain vigilant and scrutinize information sources in order to combat the detrimental impact of misinformation in our society .
