Is That An F-22 Raptor in Your Pocket?
I only read the internet for the articles. But apparently, there is a pent-up demand for images. Especially certain type of images. As you may know, Google Images was essentially created by Jennifer Lopez’s Versace dress. Of course, the quest for alluring images predates the internet (by a lot), and these images have been used to market everything from cigarettes to burgers to cars since the earliest days of advertising, starting with the Pearl Tobacco brand featuring a naked maiden on the package cover in 1871. (Back then, people needed a post coital smoke after just looking at the package.) Now, similar images are being used to market militaristic patriotism, war, and other political movements. “The beautiful Army blonde Jessica Foster has posed with an F-22 Raptor fighter jet, donned camouflage in the desert and walked a tarmac with President Donald Trump on the first day of the strikes on Iran. The slew of photos and videos depicting the patriotic life of the MAGA dream girl have led her Instagram account to explode, gaining more than a million followers since she began posting four months ago.” Only this latest form of sexualized marketing has a new twist (and pull). Jessica Foster is not even as real as Jessica Rabbit. She’s AI. And she’s part of an increasingly common trend. “Foster’s viral takeoff highlights an increasingly prevalent strategy for winning online attention. A slew of right-wing accounts, peddling patriotism mixed with soft-core pornography, use fake women and convincing imagery to grab viewers across a distracted internet, monetize their interest and score political points.” WaPo (Gift Article): Thousands have swooned over this MAGA dream girl. She’s made with AI. (Alt link). “A viral fake of an Army service member spotlights a new trend in online attention harvesting: part patriotism, part p-rn and 100 percent computer-made.” In fairness, the naked maiden featured on Pearl Tabacco packaging also wasn’t a real person. But back then, people knew that.
+ Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines with rewritten titles. (It might drive more clicks if they replace headlines with Jessica Foster…)
