AI-altered photos and videos of Minneapolis shootings blur reality
AI-altered photos and videos of Minneapolis shootings blur reality
Publish Date: 2026-02-01 05:00:00
Source Domain: www.nbcnews.com
From Facebook and TikTok to Instagram and X, AI-manipulated images and videos depicting Alex Pretti’s final moments have proliferated across the internet since his fatal shooting by federal officers in Minneapolis last weekend.
The rapid spread of media altered by artificial intelligence, much of which shows Pretti collapsing in the seconds after he was shot, has clouded key details of the shooting on social networks. Unlike other AI-generated deepfakes that portray entirely unrealistic scenes and are easily identified as fake, many of the AI-altered depictions of Pretti’s shooting appear to have been based on verified images, mirroring reality enough to confuse and mislead many online.
And even as awareness of the capabilities of advanced artificial intelligence spreads, some online are extending their skepticism to authentic media, falsely claiming that legitimate photos and videos of Pretti have been altered by AI.
One image that appears to have been manipulated with AI, showing the ICU nurse falling forward as a federal officer points a gun at his back, has been viewed over 9 million times on X (even as it received a community note that the image had been enhanced by AI). Among other AI-fabricated details, the still image features an ICE officer without a head.
An AI-manipulated image shows a man resembling Alex Pretti falling forward as an ICE officer points a gun at his back.NBC News via X
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., displayed the image during a speech on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, apparently without realizing the image was not authentic.
In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for Sen. Durbin wrote: “Our office used a photo on the Senate floor that had been widely circulated online. Staff didn’t realize until after the fact that the image had been slightly edited and regret that this mistake occurred.”
Other posts have featured realistic video, including an AI-generated video on TikTok of Pretti talking with an ICE officer and one on…
