Midjourney Blocks User After Fake AI-Generated Images of Politicians Circulate Online

In recent months, there have been numerous heated discussions surrounding the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence (AI), with some researchers and experts warning that if not handled cautiously, it could lead to the downfall of humanity. The issue of spreading false information has been a major concern, particularly due to controversial incidents involving AI “hallucinations” and Deepfakes. A recent incident involved the widely-used generative AI program called Midjourney, which was utilized to produce astonishingly deceptive images of politicians. These images rapidly gained popularity online, leading to the user responsible for their creation being banned from the platform.

Fake images created on Midjourney

For the uninitiated, Midjourney is a creative AI platform created by San Francisco-based independent research lab Midjourney, Inc. Like OpenAI’s DALL-E and BigSleep’s Image, it creates images from natural language descriptions called prompts. According to a report by Futurism, video editor Justin Brown used prompts to create fake AI images of famous politicians.

Brown wrote on Twitter: “I got banned from Midjourney AI for creating realistic images of politicians cheating on their wives in the series ‘AI Revolutionizes the Extortion Industry.’

The spoofs feature several political figures who are part of the 2024 US presidential race, such as POTUS Joe Biden, former POTUS Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as well as other figures such as former Vice President Mike Pence, Minority Leader United. US Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Reddit ban

Although Midjourney allowed the creation of these fake images through its platform, the user was banned shortly after posting them on Reddit – the images were also removed from that platform. Speaking to PetaPixel, Brown said, “After gaining some traction on Reddit, the series was removed by the Mods and the Midjourney ban followed almost immediately.”

Although the series was created to show how AI technology can easily become a weapon, Brown points out that fake images have been misused and shared out of context.