Three-armed person accidentally releases AI-generated image in Toronto mayoral election

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The Toronto mayoral candidate’s use of AI-generated imagery was exposed when a campaign platform posted a photo of a three-armed person.

Former newspaper columnist Anthony Fury released a 42-page platform on Monday that combines images he believes depict elements of Toronto, including police officers in traffic corridors and streetcars running down Queen Street.

But then a three-armed figure unlocks a visual narrative.

“It was unintentional,” Fury’s senior media adviser told CTV News Toronto, confirming the use of AI-generated imagery in the campaign.

However, Bass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master’s program in public policy, said the platform did not transparently communicate or disclose the fact that the images were generated by AI, meaning voters could He said it made it possible to believe that it was real.

“Instead of praising artists or supporting human talent, this candidate chose to: [AI]said Bednar. “I think this gets to the heart of what’s frustrating and disappointing about synthetic media.”

She cites copyright, intellectual property, and prejudice as additional ethical concerns.

“What are his search keywords? What does it mean to intentionally create an image of a black police officer? does it represent?”

To create an AI-generated image, the user enters a prompt outlining the focal lens they would like to capture. The results, drawn from massive datasets of real-world images, are a state of “hyperreality,” explained Paolo Granata, associate professor of media studies at the University of Toronto.

“This is a copy without the original,” says Granata. He scanned the “About Anthony Fury” section of the mayor’s website with his GPTZero to detect if his words were also automated.

The result is “All your sentences may have been written by AI.”

He explained that AI-generated media can be easily used to craft the stories politicians are trying to tell. “Basically, AI today is a visual representation of certain horrors and certain stories,” Granata said, showing two concrete images of him.

A second image of Fury’s platform shows a sidewalk full of people wrapped in blankets surrounded by belongings, combined with a pitch to phase out drug injection sites in Toronto. . The third image shows more than 20 tents set up in a park near a high-rise office building and a “Toronto park” by “removing drug and violence rampant tent encampments and strengthening police.” aligns with his plan of action to bring back

While safe injection sites and encampments exist in real images of Toronto, AI provides opportunities to tweak elements, increasing the number of tents, people living on the streets, and “making Toronto safe again.” ” conveys the urgency of selling Fury. ‘, said his platform.

“If politicians can set the context, then everything makes sense, and setting the framework encourages people to believe the context,” Granata said.

“I think what we are seeing now in this political movement in Toronto is witnessing the beginning of a massive phenomenon that will influence future political movements.”