AI videos of fruits and vegetables committing gory acts of violence are spreading extremist agendas on TikTok and have “radicalising potential” for young people, researchers have warned.<\/p>\n
Such clips are circumventing the social media platform’s moderation policies that prohibit extreme violent material, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) said.<\/p>\n
Masked by a “cute” and “Pixar-like” aesthetic, some videos carry messages from extremist organisations such as the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, extreme right “accelerationism”, and “nihilistic violence extremism”, GNET said in a report published today.<\/p>\n
The violent content is part of a rise of artificial intelligence-generated clips of anthropomorphic foods that play out melodramatic romance, betrayal and scandal plots.<\/p>\n
Experts from GNET, a research initiative backed by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), said: “Violence-based AI slops (low-quality, mass-produced digital content) reinforce a fascination with violence for violence\u2019s sake, thereby allowing the so-called online ‘ode to violence\u2019 to progressively gain ground among young people within the digital space.<\/p>\n
“More concerning, however, is the escalation from absurdist AI-generated drama into explicitly graphic content.<\/p>\n
“The radicalising potential of this content does not necessarily lie in ideological messaging alone, but in the normalisation of cruelty, emotional numbness and algorithmically amplified shock culture.<\/p>\n
“In this sense, the transition from harmless surreal humour to graphic AI gore reflects a broader dynamic of online radicalisation: the gradual erosion of emotional boundaries through constant exposure to increasingly violent and dehumanising imagery.”<\/p>\n
AI foods using guns, axes to kill enemies in videos<\/p>\n
Animated foods use guns and axes to kill their enemies in some videos, while other videos are linked to specific criminal groups.<\/p>\n
One example appears to replicate content from official IS videos with a carrot that makes a potato “explode”, the study found.<\/p>\n
Another features a “Carrot Khalifah” telling his army “the Carrot State will rise again”, which experts said evokes an infamous slogan used by IS.<\/p>\n
Two IS posts included hashtags often used by the terrorist group\u2019s supporters to disseminate propaganda.<\/p>\n
The report also highlighted an account that shares violent fruit and vegetable AI content and also references neo-Nazi terrorist organisation Atomwaffen Division, as well as the nihilistic violence subculture No Lives Matter.<\/p>\n
Comments on the content include statements of extreme right-wing ideology, researchers said, with the message “potato supremacy” referring to white supremacy.<\/p>\n
One post included in the report shows an AI image of a tomato that says: “No vegetables matter.”<\/p>\n
The researchers said: “It is clear that AI-generative platforms are a crucial tool for creating viral content online, including violent and extremist content, as in the aforementioned cases.<\/p>\n
AI fruit scenes are optimised for engagement, researchers say<\/p>\n
“Food violence-based material empowered by AI is easily accessible, putting minors and youth at risk of inadvertently consuming graphic or disturbing content.<\/p>\n
“Scenes with AI fruit and vegetables are simple and highly repetitive. They require no cognitive effort, provide constant rewards through unexpected scenes, and are perfect for endless scrolling.<\/p>\n
“They are specifically designed for the algorithm, extremely quick to produce, and optimised for engagement. Hence, they act as attention traps.”<\/p>\n
The team raised fears that users may “stumble” on the terror material and approach membership into the online ecosystems.<\/p>\n
The comments could function as “communication hubs” where users provide extra details, GNET added.<\/p>\n
“This type of content can lay the basis for the consumption of further violence-based audiovisual material, making young users fall into the trap of online radicalisation and audiovisual violence consumption,” it said.<\/p>\n
The authors called on TikTok to develop “countermeasures” to effectively limit such AI-generated content.<\/p>\n
TikTok has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI videos of fruits and vegetables committing gory acts of violence are spreading extremist agendas on TikTok and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-589385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}