OAN, a Trump-favored cable network, aired a segment praising increased female military recruitment while displaying four AI-generated images of women soldiers that appeared to be created using Elon Musk’s Grok platform. The incident highlights growing concerns about misinformation and the unchecked use of synthetic media in partisan news coverage, particularly as AI-generated content becomes increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect.
Key details: During Wednesday evening’s broadcast, Defense Department spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson told host Matt Gaetz that female military recruits increased from “about 16,000 female recruits last year” to “upwards of 24,000” under the current administration.
• Wilson credited the alleged improvement to “Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s leadership,” though the Pentagon has not officially released detailed data on female recruitment.
• The four images of women soldiers displayed during the segment contained small watermarks indicating they were generated by Grok AI.
• A DOD spokesperson confirmed the images were not provided by the Pentagon.
Network’s response: OAN did not respond to CNN’s inquiry about whether its staff generated the AI photos or if the network has policies regarding AI-generated content.
• The far-right network, launched in 2013, became known during Trump’s first administration for promoting conspiracy theories and election fraud claims.
• OAN has settled multiple defamation lawsuits, including cases with voting technology companies Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, with one Dominion lawsuit still pending.
The big picture: OAN’s viewership and revenue have declined significantly since DirecTV dropped the network in 2022, but it received attention earlier this year when Trump’s Voice of America pick Kari Lake claimed OAN would provide “newsfeed services” to VOA and other US-funded international broadcasters.
• The incident underscores broader concerns about AI-generated content being used in news programming without disclosure or verification.
• As synthetic media becomes more accessible through platforms like Grok, the potential for misleading visual content in news broadcasts increases.
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