AI has enabled the dissemination of false images on social networks, implicating public figures. The technique now invites itself into politics. In Germany, it is the extreme right which seizes it.
Pope Francis bundled up in a big white down jacket, Emmanuel Macron picking up trash cans in Paris… With the Dall-E or Midjourney software, this kind of doctored image is now within anyone’s reach. All you have to do is type a few sentences on your keyboard to describe the image you want, the artificial intelligence does the rest in a few seconds.
In Germany, this practice is becoming established in the political field: parliamentarians from the far-right Afd party have begun to make regular use of it for propaganda purposes.
At the service of the anti-immigration discourse
For example, there is this image where we see a group of men with dark hair and swarthy faces, they are in close-up, they seem mad with anger. It was posted on his Instagram account by the vice-president of the AfD parliamentary group, Norbert Kleinwächter, with this caption in huge characters: “No to more migrants“.
The same deputy, a recognized climate skeptic, also broadcast the representation of a screaming climate activist sitting in the street, bare chest, wild beard and hair in the wind, while terrified passers-by flee behind him. He is not the only one. Other elected officials have done the same. Impossible to list to date the number of false images broadcast.
Even if we realize quite quickly in reality that these are not “real” photos, the German media are concerned about this practice, which pushes even further the concepts of fake news and alternative reality to which we has already accustomed a certain American right.
“Very grateful” for this new technology
Moreover, after Donald Trump who released a fake photo of himself showing him praying, Wednesday April 5, his son Eric shared a snapshot where we see the former American president walking in New York in the head of an immense procession, in jubilation, surmounted by large flags with the star-spangled banner. A publication seen nine million times, fabricated from scratch by a Trumpist activist. But that, not everyone realized
In Germany, the AfD justifies itself by explaining that it uses “image banks“, without “check if they are generated by artificial intelligence“. Questioned by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Norbert Kleinwächter denies any attempt at manipulation. He explains that the images deliberately represent stereotypes, that they are identifiable as “cartoons“, that they simply allow you to better convey your message.
The deputy even said to himself “very grateful” for this new technology. Other elected members of his party explain that it costs them nothing and that they plan to share even more in the future (even if since March 28, 2023, Midjourney has suspended for a period indefinite the possibility of generating images for free). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says he fears for his part that the method will benefit the AfD by allowing it to win over more voters, the most gullible. Or the least observant.