DeSantis campaign busted using fake AI photos of Trump embracing Fauci

Either Ron DeSantis is a complete idiot or he's about to fire one. His campaign smeared former President Donald Trump using fake AI generated images of Trump and Dr. Fauci. The AI generated deepfake image shows Trump kissing Fauci on the cheek, something Trump likely would never do. A few people looked into it a bit further and realized the image wasn't real and now DeSantis looks very bad for sinking to a new low.

The Verge caught wind of the DeSantis using AI photos to target Trump and posted a news article about it. That post said:

On June 5th, the “DeSantis War Room” Twitter account shared a video emphasizing Trump’s support for Anthony Fauci, a former White House chief medical advisor and key figure in developing the US response to COVID-19. Fauci has become a hated figure in right-wing politics, particularly among the anti-vax movement, and the attack ad seeks to grow this base of support for DeSantis by portraying Trump and Fauci as close collaborators.

The video includes real clips of Trump discussing Fauci and a collage of six pictures of the two men together. Of the six images, three appear to be AI-generated, showing Trump embracing Fauci. In the collage below they are top-left, bottom-middle, and bottom-right.

The fakes were first identified by AFP, who note that the real images in the collage above can be seen here, here, and here. The three fake images show no results in reverse image searches and have a number of tells that suggest they are AI-generated.

Politicians go after each other all the time, but using fake photos has hit a new low. It's up to Ron DeSantis to fix this by firing whomever did it or admitting he made a mistake. It's no holds barred in political campaign season, but are deepfake AI photos a big resounding NO?