Berliner Tageblatt - Polar bear waltz: Fake Trump-Putin AI images shroud Ukraine peace effort

The online fakery -- dubbed widely as AI slop -- underscores how easily artificial intelligence tools can flood the internet with false and satirical content around major global events.

These creations also highlight the challenge of policing bogus content as tech platforms offer creators monetization incentives for viral posts.

In hundreds of online posts mocking European leaders as powerless mediators snubbed by Trump, one such image purported to show French President Emmanuel Macron and other top officials waiting somberly in a White House corridor with their heads bowed.

"This is utter humiliation of these corrupt scumbags. Absolutely beautiful," said one post on X from a conservative political commentator that AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation about Ukraine.

Such posts -- in multiple languages including Greek, German and French -- gained traction as European leaders joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House Monday for talks with Trump following the US president's summit with Putin in Alaska.

- Red carpet brawl -

AFP fact-checkers identified visual inconsistencies that indicate the image including Macron was AI-generated. Some of the individuals depicted in the image also do not match those seen in official photographs from the high-stakes meeting.

Macron and other European leaders represented a group of Ukraine's allies known as the "Coalition of the Willing" for White House consultations.

But multiple pro-Kremlin sources sharing the AI-generated image ridiculed them as the "coalition of those in waiting."

The image was also amplified by sites operated by the Pravda network, a well-resourced Moscow-based operation known to circulate pro-Russian narratives globally, the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said in a report.

The falsehood was an illustration of how "pro-Kremlin sources often seize on high-profile meetings involving European leaders to spread false claims," NewsGuard said.

In other viral posts, an AI-generated clip purported to show Trump and Putin skidding down snow-covered slopes, eating ice-cream beside a snowman, and waltzing with a polar bear to country music.

And in another AI video, Trump and Putin were depicted brawling on a red carpet leading from an airplane staircase, trading punches and kicks as secret service agents idle in the background.

The tongue-in-cheek posts offer a window into a social media landscape increasingly filled with AI-generated memes, videos and images competing for attention with -- and sometimes drowning out -- authentic content.

As tech platforms scale back content moderation, AI videos spread rapidly, muddying the waters around serious diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war in Ukraine.

Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending American troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit.

D.Schneider--BTB