On Monday, May 22, a fake photo of the explosion at the Pentagon appeared on social networks.. This publication led to a fall in stocks on the stock market. This is likely the first time in history that an AI-generated photo has impacted the market, according to Bloomberg..

Photo first appeared on Facebook. It depicted a column of smoke rising from the Pentagon building.. The picture soon made its way to Twitter, where it began to be shared by accounts with millions of followers and blue verification checkmarks, which are now available to subscribers to the paid version of the social network.. Accounts that posted the photo include Russian propaganda resource RT and financial news website ZeroHedge..

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The Pentagon responded to Bloomberg's request that there were no reports of any incidents near the building of the military department.. The corresponding statement was also made by the police..

Social media users began to speculate that the photo could have been generated by artificial intelligence.. Bellingcat investigator Nick Waters said the " He noted oddities in the facade of the building, as well as the fact that the fence merges with the restrictive fence.. In addition, Waters drew attention to the fact that no other photos or videos of the explosion appeared on social networks..

Confident that this picture claiming to show an " Check out the frontage of the building, and the way the fence melds into the crowd barriers. There's also no other images, videos or people posting as first hand witnesses. pic. twitter. com/t1YKQabuNL.

— Nick Waters (@N_Waters89) May 22, 2023.

After that, Twitter accounts began deleting the photo, and ZeroHedge not only deleted the photo, but also wrote that it was fake. But the S\u0026P 500 stock index fell about 0.3% at the time of the most active photo sharing on the network, but then quickly recovered..

Who and why created and distributed the image is unknown. The account that posted it on Facebook was flagged as spreading false information..

The suggestion that it was generated by AI raises concerns that new technologies will enable the creation of photographs and other content that will be used to spread misinformation..

Previously, scientists have found that artificial intelligence can create synthetic faces of people that seem more believable than real ones and inspire more confidence.. The faces created by the neural network were able to deceive even experienced observers.