A fake image of a Georgia mayor kissing a person went viral. Can US voters trust everything they see?

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Deepfakes and misinformation driven by artificial intelligence have become a point of deep concern for legislators, advocates and the public

An image of Bianca Motley Broom, the mayor of College Park, Georgia, kissing a man who was not her husband in a bar spread far and wide on Facebook. The fact that it was fake is spreading faster, now, but only after it had been seen by thousands of people.

“I think this is a sad commentary about where we are in our democracy, and where we are in our political discourse,” Motley Broom said. “It also seeks to reinforce really tired stereotypes about women in leadership.”

Six years ago, when Motley Broom first took office in the Atlanta suburb, a political enemy might have needed at least rudimentary skill with image-editing software to forge an image of a politician in a compromising position. Today, all that is required is a computer and a prompt for an AI image generator.

The threat of deepfakes and misinformation driven by artificial intelligence has become a point of deep concern for legislators, advocates and the public.

A poll taken in mid-June by Rad Campaign, a digital marketing agency, and Women Who Tech, an advocacy organization for female entrepreneurs, showed that about 71% of respondents worry about AI-generated deepfakes and disinformation affecting elections, while two in three respondents said they were concerned about AI being used to sexualize women.

“The findings show that Americans are more concerned about AI’s use in deepfakes, election disinformation, and the sexualization of women and children than its impact on jobs or the economy,” said Allyson Kapin, founder of the Rad Campaign and co-founder of Women Who Tech.

The Trump administration has a penchant for deploying AI imagery. In January, the White House’s official account on the social media platform X posted a digitally altered image of Nekima Levy