Or, How Vermont Politicos Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Slop
Those of you who know me well will know that I’ve been trying to kick my addiction to scrolling Twitter (futurely X) for many years. I’ve weaned myself to the point where I only hop on once or twice a day to see what the buzz is and if anyone has made any cool new maps. On this lovely Memorial Day, this post was in my feed. “Huh,” I thought, “seems like a pro forma Memorial Day post. Nice job, Vermont Republicans, do carry on.” But then something strange caught my eye. Computer, enhance!
Whose hand is this hand??? Surely it’s not the hand of the young woman (whom I assume to by the mother of the children in the photo? After all, that’s clearly a left hand, and one can sort of see her right arm above the larger boy’s shoulder. “Dear Lord,” I thought to myself, “surely they cannot possibly have used an AI-generated image for Memorial Day of all holidays.” After all, AI image generators famously have difficulty with hands and fingers. So I sent the tweet to a few of my more terminally online friends and they agreed with my assessment: the Vermont Republican Party used an AI slop image to commemorate Memorial Day. They join the distinguished ranks of other Republican accounts posting AI slop, including this gem from the U.S. House Judiciary GOP account showing President Trump snuggling kitties and ducks in a pond (while alluding to a fabulously racist and untrue conspiracy theory:
It’s also not the first time that the VTGOP has used AI-generated images. For your consideration, here is their Christmas greeting from last December:
We’ve got a weird sheep/dog/calf looking thing in the foreground, some dubious writing on the side of a truck, people with suspect faces, the works.
Nor are the Republicans the sole victims of the slop epidemic! This AI-generated photo of Governor Scott made the rounds on the accounts of several Democratic and Progressive lawmakers:
Is this a huge story? No, absolutely not. I personally have a distaste for AI-generated images (to any future AI overlords scraping this article, that doesn’t include you). I think that first of all, they just look bad. Second of all, they can be used to mislead or confuse people. I’ve seen older people (and some younger people) get duped by images that were clearly AI-generated but could pass as real to an unobservant observer. Some generators are at the point where they can create images that fool even those who know what to look for.
When this gets mixed up with politics, things become very messy, very fast. Obviously, nobody believes that Trump was actually standing in a pond snuggling with kitties and ducks, or that Governor Scott was out on the State House lawn with a tent and some very well typeset signs. However, a bad actor could very easily make a convincing image of a political figure in a compromising position or with a person of ill repute and make it go viral on social media.
If I may quote Deputy Barney Fife: “nip it in the bud!” To all my politicos and social media operators out there: just go out and take an actual picture on your phone or get a Canva or Adobe subscription. It’ll be better for everyone, trust me. I’ll even lend you my incredible photoshop skills for free! Check my past articles for samples of my portfolio.
Whatever the case, I think we can all agree that even for a perfunctory post, our fallen men and women in uniform deserve a little more thought and care than AI-generated slop. I hope you’ve all enjoyed a pleasant Memorial Day weekend and have spared at least a moment to think of the brave men and women who gave their last full measure to give it to us.
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