Donald Trump may have coined a new term in his latest false attack on Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. In a pair of posts on Truth Social over the weekend, the former president said that Vice President Kamala Harris "A.I.'d" photos of a huge crowd that showed up to see her speak at a Detroit airport campaign rally last week.
"There was nobody at the plane, and she 'A.I.’d' it, and showed a massive 'crowd' of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!" Trump wrote. "She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the 'crowd' looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake 'crowds' at her speeches."
The Harris campaign responded with its own post saying that the image is "an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan."
Aside from the novel use of "AI" as a verb, Trump's post marks the first time, that we know of, that a US presidential candidate has personally raised the specter of AI-generated fakery by an opponent (rather than by political consultants or random social media users). The accusations, false as they are, prey on widespread fears and misunderstandings over the trustworthiness of online information in the AI age.
It would be nice to think that we could just say Trump's claims here are categorically false and leave it at that. But as artificial intelligence tools become increasingly good at generating photorealistic images, it's worth outlining the many specific ways we can tell that Harris' crowd photos are indeed authentic. Consider this a guide for potential techniques you can use the next time you come across accusations that some online image has been "A.I.'d" to fool you.
Context and Sourcing
By far the easiest way to tell Harris' crowds are real is from the vast number of corroborating sources showing those same crowds. Both the AP and Getty have numerous shots of the rally crowd from multiple angles, as do journalists and attendees who were at the event. Local news sources posted video of the crowds at the event, as did multiple attendees on the ground. Reporters from multiple outlets reported directly on the crowds in their accounts: Local outlet MLive estimated the crowd size at 15,000, for instance, while The New York Times noted that the event was “witnessed by thousands of people and news outlets, including The New York Times, and the number of attendees claimed by her campaign is in line with what was visible on the ground.”
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