Associated Incidents
The world paused briefly when the visuals of an explosion in Pentagon's premises began making rounds on social media on Monday. The image, which began circulating on Twitter on May 22, showed an explosion on a grass lawn outside the Pentagon.
The original post has since been removed.
Pentagon explosion visuals: Did an explosion really happen?
The US Department of Defense has clarified that there has been no explosion in and even in the vicinity of the Pentagon's premises.
A Department of Defense spokesperson was quoted as saying by Forbes that the image purportedly showing an explosion in Pentagon's premises is a piece of "misinformation". The Arlington Fire department shortly tweeted that there is "NO explosion or incident" at or near the Pentagon reservation.
'No immediate danger or hazards to public': Arlington Fire department
The Arlington fire department clarified that there is 'no immediate danger or hazards to the public' around the Pentagon.
So far, the source of the viral image remains undetermined.
AI-generated deep fakes in spotlight
The deep fakes generated by Artificial Intelligence have been in the spotlight for their life-like depictions of absolutely real people and subjects. They have spread on social media like wildfire.
The proliferation of such deep fakes has increased after a series of highly-powerful AI technologies, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, became public.
The AI's life-like depictions include Pope Francis wearing a Balenciaga coat as well as AI-generated viral images of former President Donald Trump resisting authorities during a fake arrest.
The image depicting a blast inside Pentagon's premises too has been described as a deepfake.
Meanwhile, last week, the words of caution related to the regulation of Artificial Intelligence came from none other than Samuel Altman, the CEO of most-successful A.I. startup of the day, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
In a US Senate hearing last week, Altman said:"If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong."
Altman proposed the formation of a US or global agency that would license the most powerful AI systems and have the authority to "take that license away and ensure compliance with safety standards."