AI-made influencers post Coachella photos that look real

In short: AI-generated influencer accounts are posting Coachella-looking photos, and some are hard to tell apart from real festival content.

What's going on

Coachella started Friday, and social media quickly filled up with the usual festival posts. That includes carefully staged photos, flashy outfits, and selfies with celebrities.

According to reporting from The Verge, some of these “people” are not actually at Coachella. In some cases, they do not exist at all. They are made using generative AI, which is software that can create realistic-looking images from text prompts (like typing instructions into a super-powered photo maker).

Faking Coachella attendance is not new. Even real influencers have posted content that makes it look like they attended when they did not. The difference now is that AI-generated faces and bodies can look more lifelike, which can make synthetic accounts harder to spot in the flood of real posts.

The Verge points to an Instagram account called “Ammarathegoat” as an example. The account has more than 170,000 followers and, according to the report, appears to show an AI-made avatar posing with famous people and recognizable Coachella backdrops. The account does not clearly disclose in its bio that the person is AI-generated.

What to watch

Expect more confusion about what is real in online influencer content, especially around big events. Watch for clearer labels from platforms and creators, and for more tools that help detect AI-made images. For regular users, a good rule is to treat perfect-looking celebrity photos like a souvenir that could be printed at home, not proof someone was really there.

Source: The Verge AI