Around 17:00 Moscow time reports spread through Telegram channels and some media about a powerful blast near the Pentagon in Washington. A smoke-filled photo accompanied the message, but later checks showed the image was not authentic.
The smoky picture first circulated on conservative American Facebook pages, where the owner company Meta was viewed with suspicion in Russia and faced bans. Shortly after, Russian military correspondents and several Telegram channels echoed the post, including one with about 1.5 million subscribers. About twenty minutes later, several journalists and outlets noted that the image was likely fake and dated back to 2001.
To verify, a Washington Post photographer posted a photo taken on Northwest Avenue near the International Trade Center in Washington. The image displays the center’s recognizable dome, the Washington Monument, and the Potomac River shoreline where the Pentagon sits. There are no signs of an explosion in this photo.
A video released by a RIA Novosti reporter offered a circular panorama of the Pentagon perimeter showing no evidence of any blast or fire.
Moments later the security office of the U.S. Department of Defense stated that no incidents near the ministry were recorded.
Analysts who examined the original footage noticed puffs of smoke and suggested the image could have been produced by a neural network using a real photo from the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon as a basis. Several telltale signs of artificial origin were identified: a street lamp displaced from its base and a portion of the fence that appears to run along a sidewalk. Such anomalies are common in images created by 360-degree cameras or neural networks, and they can surface in street view maps or synthetic scenes.
Fake news of this kind finds traction across major outlets and can spark public concern and market instability. One notable example involved a social media post on the Twitter feed of a prominent British newspaper. On September 8, 2022, a message claimed Queen Elizabeth II had died. The post proved to be misinformation, as the real pages of this and other outlets did not carry such an article at that time. The Queen had indeed passed away later that day, but Buckingham Palace had not yet issued an official statement when the fake post circulated. The public update about the death came at 18:30 after an earlier time noted locally, and the fake post appeared within that window.
In the following months, concerns about forged content produced with artificial intelligence or based on AI-generated material grew among world leaders, media figures, and the public. A March 2023 example saw the Midjourney neural network create photographs depicting a dramatic flood in 2001 on the West Coast, framed as an interview and posted on an online forum. The imagery included real public figures, and it spread quickly across American online spaces. Young people who were alive after 2001 were startled by the perceived scale of the event, and older readers realized that memory can be shaped by digital manipulation.
Later in March, fabricated images showing the arrest of a former U.S. president circulated online. The scenes depicted a mass confrontation with police, prompting the New York Police Department to issue a clarification that no arrest had occurred. The incident underscored how plausible-looking AI visuals can blur lines between fact and fiction and how quickly such content can propagate across networks in both the United States and Canada.
In April, German photographer Boris Eldagsen admitted that a work titled Pseudo Amnesia The Electrician was created entirely with artificial intelligence. He had won a major photography prize in the Free Creation category, but he chose to relinquish the award. The organizers confirmed awareness of the AI involvement while noting the piece was presented as a collaboration between a living author and machine intelligence. Eldagsen stated that AI-generated imagery should not be mistaken for traditional photography and used the moment to draw attention to the challenges AI presents for creative fields.