[The story below from Futurism reflects frustration about how easy it already is to use generative AI to create presence illusions that mislead (and dangerously increase political and cultural polarization). Coverage in USA Today starts this way:

“A May 30 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes images of apparel and store displays featuring horned figures and satanic imagery inside a major retailer. ‘Folks: THIS is TARGET, & that is a Satanist idol,’ reads the post. ‘STOP SHOPPING TARGET! They are EVIL.’ The post was shared more than 700 times in a week. Other versions of the claim were shared hundreds of additional times.”

The AP fact check includes this about the origins of the posts:

“Dan Reese, a software developer in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, confirmed in Facebook messages to The Associated Press on Thursday that he created the images over two days last week using a generative AI program developed by Midjourney, a San Francisco-based independent research lab.

His Facebook post from May 26 includes the red goat mannequin and other images being widely shared, as well as about a dozen others of children or mannequins dressed in apparel featuring devils, pentagrams and similar imagery. ‘They’re Targeting Our Children,’ Reese wrote in the post, which is found on AI Art Universe, a Facebook group for showcasing AI-generated art.

Reese said he was inspired to create the images following false reports that Target was selling satanic-themed children’s clothes as part of its Pride collection. ‘I am a Satanist myself so I thought it would be fun to use AI to explore what Satanic themed kids fashion might actually look like,’ he wrote in his Facebook message to the AP.

The focus of the prior claims were around Target’s inclusion of the brand Abprallen, a London-based company that also sells some occult- and satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories, such as popular pins and shirts featuring the phrase “Satan respects pronouns.” Erik Carnell, the creator of the brand, stressed in a statement posted on Instagram last week that the company had just three items featured in Target’s collection, and none bore satanic references.”

As the Futurism story notes, without better media literacy training (and I’d argue even with it), this phenomenon is only going to become a more common and bigger problem. –Matthew]

Idiots Fooled By AI-Generated Pics of Satanic Merchandise at Target

This Is Just So Stupid.

By Maggie Harrison
June 5, 2023

Moving Target

Far-right Facebook was sent spiraling last week over so-called images of children wearing what looked to be Target merchandise covered in Satanic imagery. These people, however, are idiots, and all of the images in question — which also included depictions of Satanic horned mannequins, because that’s also something that a major retailer would definitely put in suburban shopping centers — were AI-generated fakes.

“Look at the faces on these children, I feel in my spirit, they even knew there was something satanic with making them be photographed with these clothes on,” reads one such post, shared on May 30 by the administrators of a Facebook group called Christian Patriots. “If you are a Christian and a parent and you shop at Target, Lord, have mercy on you.”

“Is this for real?” asked one skeptical commenter.

“Unfortunately it is,” the page’s admin responded.

But again, unfortunately for these good ol’ Christian Patriots, it isn’t for real. The images were AI-generated by a Facebook user named Dan Reese, who first posted the phony pictures to a Facebook group called “AI Art Universe” and separately confirmed to Reuters that the images in question were created using the text-to-image AI system Midjourney.

The images of Satan-worshipping tykes — one of whom was depicted with tattoos, by the way — may not have been real, but watching people lose their minds over these fake images as if they were real is clearly a new layer of AI-driven internet hell.

Seeing Is Believing

A spokesperson from Target also confirmed to Reuters that the retailer “has never sold” the products depicted in the images, because of course they haven’t, since they don’t actually exist. And for its part, Facebook has thankfully marked the images as phony, but not before other Facebookers sank their teeth into the conspiracy.

“Target has really gone over the edge,” reads one May 28 post decrying the fake merchandise, which was shared by other users 162 times. “They need to go away too.” Then, asked by one user where she had found the images, the poster simply responded “the web,” adding that there “are more if you google.” So, some really promising media literacy happening in this corner of the internet.

Culture Warriors

Target has recently found itself in the throes of the anti-trans and homophobic culture wars, mainly as the result of the retailer’s offering gender-affirming and pride-friendly clothing for kids. And to that end, the photos were seemingly created as a joke mocking anti-Target far-righters — some of whom, in a particularly ironic turn, then took the images at truth and ran.

Anyway, really looking forward to 2024!