WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WPTV) – A content creator is accused in Florida of using artificial intelligence to create fake social media videos of strangers.
This is the fourth time West Palm Beach police have announced that the same man used AI to create fake, horrifying scenarios.
A more recent incident occurred on Nov. 30 at the Marathon gas station on Southern Boulevard at Dixie Highway.
Police said the 22-year-old man showed a gas station attendant an AI video of someone being dragged away.
This video sparked an argument between the two.
When officers arrived, police said the 22-year-old man refused to give his home address and was arrested and charged with resisting an officer.
The man's identity has not been released as he has not been charged with anything in connection with the AI video, but police said he admitted to “performing the act that night” in order to create more social media content.
He added that people would “like his content more” because he was willing to get arrested, police said.
Melanie Valentine said: “I'm really glad he's been arrested because obviously my concern is that he's going to do the same thing to other people.”
Valentine was the first to report a similar incident to police. She said the man approached her at a hardware store on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, showed her an AI video of her truck being stolen, and tried to get her into his car to “get the guy.”
“It was definitely scary,” Valentine said. “Honestly, I was shocked at how real the video was.”
Police said the same person was involved in four separate incidents that were captured on body cameras.
Police say the man recorded a shopper and created a fake video of him kissing another woman, then showed it to his wife while recording her reaction with meta glasses.
In the body camera video, the man can be heard telling police he was doing it all for social media.
“I made a banger out of this, boss. The last thing I posted on TikTok got like a million hits,” he said in the police video.
The content creator did not respond to requests for comment.
Criminal defense lawyer Stuart Kaplan said it is not illegal to create AI videos of people in public unless criminal intent can be proven.
But Kaplan said the number of cases is rapidly increasing, making it more dangerous.
“If AI is manipulated and falls into the wrong hands, it could have very troubling and harmful effects on our way of life,” Kaplan added.
The warning from the police is clear. AI videos, such as those produced by content creators, are becoming more realistic, and viewers cannot necessarily believe what they see.
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