Look who’s back.
Mein Leben
Right wing extremists are using artificial intelligence to bring Adolf Hitler back to life for social media consumption.
The AI version of the Third Reich leader is garnering a flood of eyeballs on online platforms, while also whitewashing his image from “worst person in history” to “somebody who was simply misunderstood at the time.”
This startling news comes from a study published by the nonprofit think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue and first shared with the Washington Post, detailing how this new wave of extremist propaganda has made huge inroads online.
Through the magic of AI, it found, Hitler is now reciting his speeches in English in audio or video for platforms such as X-formerly-Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
“Just seven AI-generated videos of Hitler speeches on YouTube, posted in 2024, had received 6.9 million views,” reads the report.
What’s just as disturbing is that algorithms on these platforms amplify the reach of this content, similarly to how other extremist content goes viral online.
Fringe Set
It’s not exactly new that radical figures are using AI to promote extremist opinions. The terrorist organization Islamic State (IS or ISIS) has used AI to produce slick-looking propaganda videos to glorify acts of mass murder and terrorism.
It makes perfect sense that fringe groups would harness AI. Tools to make visual deepfakes and clone voices are readily available and are cheap to obtain.
But what’s particularly disturbing about all this AI content featuring Hitler is that it’s going viral without platforms proactively limiting its spread.
The online platform X seems to be especially lousy with pro-Hitler content, according to the report, with “just 11 posts garnering 11.2 million views in a one-week period.”
The ISD report says that it seems all this awful content and its rising popularity could be tracked to rising anti-semitism.
More on generative AI: GPT-4 Was Deeply Racist Before OpenAI Muzzled It
