AI Slop Is Ruining Cute Animals on the Internet
The rise of AI-generated imagery is enabling new forms of online scams, such as fake lost pet reports used to extort money from desperate owners. Additionally, these deepfakes are complicating the work of photojournalists by allowing skeptics to dismiss authentic evidence of animal abuse as AI-generated content.
Why it matters
The proliferation of realistic AI imagery is eroding public trust in visual evidence and creating new vectors for financial fraud.
Mibbby Butler was overjoyed one day in April when she received a text message that her lost cat, Brooklyn, had supposedly been found. Her roommate’s boyfriend had allegedly taken the cat and dumped him 30 minutes away in the Los Angeles suburbs the day prior. Butler quickly posted a missing poster on social media, and she was driving around with her roommate searching for Brooklyn when a stranger sent her a photo. In it, he is sitting on a kitchen counter while being embraced by a girl.
“My baby is OK!” Butler exclaimed to her roommate. But if she wanted to get him back, the person said, she would have to pay money up front for Brooklyn’s purported temporary care. That’s when Butler sensed she was being scammed and began looking closer at the photo.
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