How Fake AI Photo of a Pentagon Blast Went Viral and Briefly Spooked Stocks
The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, on April 14.
Photographer: Nathan Howard/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A falsified photograph of an explosion near the Pentagon spread widely on social media Monday morning, briefly sending US stocks lower in possibly the first instance of an AI-generated image moving the market.
Just past 10 a.m. New York time, when the photo was circulating, the S&P 500 declined by about 0.3% to a session low. As news emerged that the image was a hoax, the index quickly rebounded.