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Incident 1598: City of Spokane Reportedly Distributed Purported AI-Generated Clocktower Flyer Resembling Graphic Designer Matthew Clinard's Artwork

Description: A Spokane Parks and Recreation employee reportedly used a purported generative AI image tool to create a flyer promoting the restored Great Northern Clocktower chimes. The flyer reportedly reproduced elements of artist Matthew Clinard's commercially sold Clocktower sticker and was distributed by the mayor's office without the city-required AI disclosure. After Clinard complained publicly, the city removed the image and apologized, then began considering AI-policy and employee-training reforms.

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Alleged: Synthetic media generation technology developers and Synthetic image generation technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Unnamed employee of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department , Synthetic media creators , Spokane Parks and Recreation Department , City of Spokane and Office of Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, which harmed Matthew Clinard , Epistemic integrity , artists , Copyright holders , General public and General public of Spokane.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic media generation technology and Synthetic image generation technology

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1598
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-07-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceAI-generated images fool Spokane city officials twice in six days
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AI-generated images fool Spokane city officials twice in six days

AI-generated images fool Spokane city officials twice in six days

spokesman.com

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AI-generated images fool Spokane city officials twice in six days
spokesman.com · 2026

Tragedy struck in Spokane in late June when a man allegedly killed a small dog in a domestic violence dispute.

Local police, issued a news release on July 1 highlighting the man's arrest.

Except the dog wasn't dead, only seriously injured. …

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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