Officials clarified that there was no explosion and the photo was fabricated, after international news agencies swiftly reported on the posts, causing a momentary panic in the stock market.
Experts say that the increasing popularity of easy-to-access and sophisticated programs now enables the infliction of everyday chaos, and they can detect the telltale signs of an AI-generated image in a viral statement.
Here’s a more detailed examination of the facts.
ASSERTION: A picture depicts a blast in close proximity to the Pentagon.
Police and fire officials in Arlington, Virginia report that there were no incidents at the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, located across the Potomac from the nation’s capital, and they confirm that the image circulating is not authentic.
Bloomberg News falsely suggested that Mark’s Twitter account, including his blue check verification signature, was widely shared in investment circles. Despite this, the claim and image were spread by Russian government-backed media outlets, including RT, known as a company formerly based in Russia.
The Russian state news agency wrote a tweet stating that more than three million followers have been deleted since an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
After confirming that the reports were incorrect, RT acknowledged that it removed the tweet and “reported the official stance from the Pentagon regarding the issue”.
On Tuesday, we emailed a statement to the company, reporting the correct steps we took, as we were aware of the fast-paced news verification process and the circulating reports. Once the veracity and provenance were ascertained, we made the public aware of the news.
Following the opening of the U.S. Stock market at 9:30 a.M., A ripple effect was generated in the investment industry, causing the widespread dissemination of the fake image that was still visible.
Social media accounts and investment websites favored by day traders spread the false claims, causing a temporary decrease of 0.3% in the S&P 500.
Investors were suggesting to place their money in a safer location to protect it. For instance, they briefly started considering gold and U.S. Treasury bonds as prices for these investments tend to increase when fear enters the market. Additionally, other investments also tend to shift in various ways during such occurrences.
The quick dissemination of the picture prompted the Arlington County Fire Department to utilize social media to refute the rumors.
There are no immediate hazards or danger to the public, and there is no incident or explosion taking place near or at the Pentagon reservation. The Pentagon is the acronym referring to the agency that polices the Pentagon, known as the Protection Force Pentagon. ACFD and @PFPAOfficial are aware of a circulating online report about an explosion near the Pentagon.
Captain Nate Hiner, the spokesperson for the fire department, confirmed that the agency’s tweet was genuine, but declined to provide further comment, stating that the police at the Pentagon had deferred responding to messages via phone and email.
The internet has recently been inundated with progressively lifelike yet frequently imperfect visuals, which according to experts, were probably generated using artificial intelligence programs, the fabricated image was.
Hany Farid, a computer science professor at the University of Berkeley in California, specializes in digital forensics and analysis of images. He pointed out that AI-generated images often contain imperfections in the surrounding area and inconsistencies in the fence and building.
He expressed in an email that there are online images of the Pentagon which do not match the windows of the structure. The barrier around it is uneven, and there is an unusual dark post extending from the sidewalk which is also connected to the fence. Moreover, the grass and concrete seamlessly blend together.
Chirag Shah, the co-director of the Center for AI Responsibility at the University of Washington in Seattle, cautions that spotting fakes won’t always be obvious.
Society will need to rely more on community vigilance and crowdsourcing to weed out bad information and improve AI technology, as he argued that arriving at the truth is crucial.
“Merely depending on detection instruments or social media posts will not be sufficient,” Shah stated in an email.
Wall Street’s primary concern on Monday morning was whether the U.S. Government would manage to evade a catastrophic default on its debt, prior to the explosion hoax, which was the most significant political scandal in Washington.
According to Adam Kobeissi, the editor-in-chief at The Kobeissi Letter, a publication in the industry, dissemination of inaccurate information can have a particularly harmful impact when it is spread by sources that are even remotely considered trustworthy. This is especially true as the market is becoming more responsive to attention-grabbing news headlines.
“It’s essentially as if you’re activating a mechanism each time a news title is published,” he described over the phone, highlighting that a significant portion of the market is currently automated. “Many of these fluctuations occur due to high-frequency trading, algorithmic trading, which essentially involves extracting information from headlines, analyzing them, and executing trades within milliseconds.”
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Business reporters Stan Choe and Wyatte Grantham-Philips from the Associated Press in New York contributed to this story.
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This is part of AP’s efforts to address widely shared misinformation by adding contextually accurate content online, including work with organizations and companies outside. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.