Filmmaker Behind Gaza AI Video Says Trump Shared Clip Without Consent
Solo Avital, an American-Israeli filmmaker, has stated that an AI-generated video shared by former US President Donald Trump on his social media platforms was a satire piece and that it was distributed without his permission.
The video, which depicts Trump’s hypothetical vision of transforming Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” was described as a “megalomaniac idea” by Avital. He explained to The Guardian that the clip was intended as a satirical commentary.
“We are storytellers, we’re not provocateurs, we sometimes do satire pieces such as this one was supposed to be. This is the duality of the satire: it depends what context you bring to it to make the punchline or the joke. Here there was no context and it was posted without our consent or knowledge,” Avital stated.
Avital and his business partner reportedly shared the video with actor Mel Gibson, though Gibson denied sharing it with Trump. The video had also been briefly available on the Instagram account of Avital’s business partner before being taken down. According to Avital, the video’s wide reach, after such limited initial exposure, “surprised the hell out of me.”
Avital expressed hopes that the video might “spark a public debate about rights and wrongs” regarding generative AI and the rights of content creators.
