The government shutdown started on Wednesday, Oct. 1, leaving millions of families without their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this month, putting them in tight financial strain, sparking outrage on social media, including a disturbing trend of AI-generated Black women yelling at state employees about being denied SNAP benefits. Now that SNAP benefits have officially been suspended, another set of AI-generated videos has gone viral online, and they are equally disturbing.
Suggested Reading
On TikTok, a video of an AI-generated “Karen” has taken over the social media platform. Uploaded by @thenotrealaipax, the video shows a disheveled, red-faced, AI-generated woman crying into the camera, apologizing for voting for Donald Trump because she is struggling to feed her kids and heat her home.
“Y’all, I just—I need to say I’m sorry. I voted for him (Trump). I thought he was gonna help folks like me. I really did. Now, my SNAPS gone. My Medicaid’s gone. They cut off my heat and help last week. I don’t know how I’m supposed to buy groceries next month or keep the lights on.”
Though the video is AI-generated, folks in the comments were tricked by the fabricated apology and took their opportunity to vent in the comments, expressing that they felt no empathy towards the woman.
“They’re only sorry when it starts affecting THEM,” wrote one user.
“I wanna feel compassion. But we warned them. For months, even years, we warned them. They chose to believe the lies. They chose to be submissive,” added another.
On the flip side, users also commented that they accept the apology and hope that the woman will make better voting decisions in the future.
@janicebytes wrote: “You are brave for saying it. Don’t worry, things will turn around if we stand together!!!”
“Listen, sometimes stuff happens for you to see, but at least you learned from it. You, too, will get through this. Everyone will,” added another.
However, as AI-generated clips like this continue to be uploaded onto the internet and only become more convincing, it is more important now than ever that you become aware of how to spot the phony clips, and here are some tips.
TikTok creator and AI educator Will Francis noted some of the easiest AI-generated tells in videos online, such as a blur that jumps to different areas of the screen. That indicates someone has taken time to blur out a watermark from an AI platform.
Another is the video’s quality. We are in the digital age, where almost everyone has a smartphone with a good-quality camera. If the video looks a little blurry, it might be AI.
Next, check for subtle inconsistencies in the background of these videos, such as an object disappearing midway through. These clues are easy to miss, but if you focus hard enough, you will spot a couple of things that seem off.
Finally, it is always a good idea to look through the account. Most of the time, you will find that the exact same video has been posted multiple times with the same script but a different AI-generated avatar saying it.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.