Approximately twenty YouTube channels are producing AI-generated videos containing false information about music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’s sex trafficking trial, accumulating millions of views and benefiting from misinformation, researchers report.
This surge of misleading content poses a risk to public understanding of the musician’s seven-week trial in New York, where jurors were deliberating on Tuesday to determine whether he was the leader of a criminal organisation that orchestrated coercive sexual encounters with escorts.
The sensational AI-generated channels have gathered nearly 70 million views from about 900 videos related to the musician over the last year, according to data collected by Indicator, a US publication focused on digital misinformation.
The videos commonly feature AI-generated thumbnails depicting celebrities on the witness stand alongside images of Diddy, often accompanied by fabricated quotes.
One channel, Pak Gov Update, released a nearly 30-minute video titled “Jay-Z Breaks His Silence on Diddy Controversy,” which includes a thumbnail of the American rapper. The thumbnail depicts Jay-Z sobbing and holding up a CD with a made-up quote stating: “I WILL BE DEAD SOON.”
Pak Gov Update has shared similar videos featuring false testimonies attributed to other celebrities, such as American comedian Kevin Hart and singer-songwriter Usher.
The channel began posting content about the highly publicised trial in recent weeks, having previously focused on Urdu content related to Pakistan.
AI slop describes the often low-quality visual content produced with inexpensive and readily accessible artificial intelligence tools that increasingly appear on social media platforms, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction.
Numerous content creators on YouTube and TikTok promote paid courses on profiting from viral AI slop on technology platforms, many of which have diminished their dependence on human fact-checkers and reduced content moderation efforts.
Combs, 55, faces the prospect of life imprisonment if found guilty of five federal charges, including racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation for prostitution purposes.
Experts warn that conspiracy theories and inaccuracies surrounding his trial have recently been prevalent on social media platforms, endangering factual information and affecting genuine witnesses.
