Last week, former US President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video on his Truth Social account, depicting a dystopian vision of Gaza reimagined as a luxury resort. The video quickly garnered attention and sparked a conversation about the implications of generative artificial intelligence.
The video, titled ‘Trump Gaza,’ presents a satirical depiction of the Gaza Strip transformed into a Dubai-style paradise. In the video, Trump is seen enjoying cocktails with a topless Benjamin Netanyahu on sun loungers, while Elon Musk tears flatbread into dips. The creator of the video, LA-based film-maker Solo Avital, has stated the video was intended as a political satire of Trump’s “megalomaniac idea” of property development in Gaza.
Avital created the video in early February while experimenting with AI tools and was surprised by its spread. “We are storytellers, we’re not provocateurs, we sometimes do satire pieces such as this one was supposed to be,” he said. “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.”
The video’s initial emergence was in February, shortly after Trump proposed a property development plan for the Gaza Strip. His plan calls for a population ‘clean out’ and envisions the area as the “Riviera of the Middle East.” He subsequently posted the AI-generated clip on his Truth Social platform without explanation.
Avital and his business partner shared an early version of the video with Mel Gibson, who Trump named as a special ambassador to Hollywood. Gibson denied sharing the video with Trump.
The incident has raised concerns about the spread of misinformation and the potential for AI to create convincing but misleading content. Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in deepfakes, noted that AI-generated content is becoming increasingly prevalent.
He emphasized the potential for AI to generate “very compelling, visceral” propaganda, highlighting the ease with which individuals can create content that might have required significant financial resources or technical expertise in the past. However, Farid also cautioned about the “dark side” of this technology, including its potential use in generating child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, and other harmful content.
Farid stated that the speed with which AI-generated content can spread necessitates a cautious approach, suggesting that AI platforms have a responsibility to “put guardrails” on this technology to prevent misuse.
Avital has also expressed worries about how easily such content can be misunderstood and misused, highlighting the need for public discourse on the ethical implications of generative AI. However, Avital also sees the positive aspects of AI in the creative field. “Everyone who thinks it will kill creativity, we’re proof to the contrary,” he said. “This film wouldn’t have been created without human intervention.”
