As families desperately seek to find missing loved ones and communities grapple with immeasurable losses of both life and property in the wake of Hurricane Helene, AI slop scammers appear to be capitalizing on the moment for personal gain.

A Facebook account called “Coastal Views” usually shares calmer AI imagery of nature-filled beachside scenes. The account’s banner image showcases a signpost reading “OBX Live,” OBX being shorthand for North Carolina’s Outer Banks islands.

But starting this weekend, the account shifted its approach dramatically, as first flagged by a social media user on X.

Instead of posting “photos” of leaping dolphins and sandy beaches, the account suddenly started publishing images of flooded mountain neighborhoods, submerged houses, and dogs sitting on top of roofs.

But instead of spreading vital information to those affected by the natural disaster, or at the very least sharing real photos of the destruction, the account is seemingly trying to use AI to cash in on all the attention the hurricane has been getting.

  • Mayor Poopington
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    691 month ago

    This is bizarre to me. There’s plenty of actual pictures of hurrican devastation.

    • Flax
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      1 month ago

      1000051721

      Woah! Comment “Amen”

    • [email protected]
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      351 month ago

      Yea, but if you have your own OC devastation, you can broadcast your gofundme scam or whatever.

    • @[email protected]
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      131 month ago

      Yeah but actual journalism is a cost center

      Just generate images and text from the general idea and you are good

    • @[email protected]
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      61 month ago

      If I can pump out fake flood pictures, I can convince a couple million Americans that none of the flood images are real. That it’s ALL AI generated. Thus I can make roughly $100k on ad impressions and further convince people that climate change is a hoax.