This week in Missouri, a band of vervet monkeys and a single goat were spotted roaming the streets of St. Louis. But while it made international headlines, it was further complicated by an avalanche of AI-generated photos.
When I used to work for various press agencies, I would occasionally use my Photoshop skills to make skits of certain news events. But I was the only person in the office who could make silly composites. In 2026, anyone and everyone can make such edits in seconds thanks to apps like Google Gemini and ChatGPT.
When news broke that at least four vervet monkeys had broken loose, people immediately began to reach for an AI model. A city official addressed the issue.
“We are aware that alleged sightings and videos have been shared through social media however these posts cannot be verified and are not used to conduct enforcement actions,” Justen Hauser, Environmental Health Bureau Chief, tells Fox 2 Now…