the Pope, a king or even Jesus Christ<\/a>, the creation and sharing of the anatomically incorrect whale image has raised a serious question – should politicians be dabbling with AI-generated imagery at all?<\/p>\nAustralian National University political marketing expert Andrew Hughes said there was an increased amount of AI-generated content in political messaging because it was a cheap, quick and easy way to put out eye-grabbing, visual content.<\/p>\n
![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNTN4Z_Andrew_Hughes_ABC_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAustralian National University political marketing expert Andrew Hughes.
\nPhoto: ABC News: David Sciasci\n<\/p>\n
Dr Hughes said poorly executed content could damage the reputation of a public figure.<\/p>\n
The perils of using AI-generated images have hit Australian news headlines in recent weeks, with a viral social media campaign protesting against changes to the federal government’s capital gains tax shown to be misleading.<\/p>\n
Dr Hughes said this was an example of social media users inadvertently becoming caught up in a disinformation campaign by sharing the post with false claims.<\/p>\n
“You have to be careful and you have to make sure the information you’re using is accurate,” he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Hughes said the public would have a right to wonder why a politician was not providing work for a local artist or photographer, or using their own photos.<\/p>\n
“That’s the question people will be asking themselves – if you’re from the local community, why aren’t you helping your local community?” he said.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got a camera in your pocket. Take a snap when you’re out and about and people will love you for it because that’s the real you and that’s what we love seeing.”<\/p>\n
Gareth Colliton is an artist and the head of creative organisation One Day Studios in Warrnambool, which is in Britnell’s electorate.<\/p>\n
Colliton said generative AI took opportunities away from local artists, and that a politician making an effort to hire a local photographer to use their work for a fee would land better with audiences.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen some really amazing photos of whales breaching around here,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If it had been those photos, it would have had a whole different conversation – it would’ve been shared a lot more and had much better results for that politician.”<\/p>\n
Colliton said he could understand the use of AI to quickly create content for social media but he did not believe it was the best tactic.<\/p>\n
“You’re doing yourself an injustice when you use AI,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It cheapens your brand \u2026 it loses its impact and it becomes a bit of a joke, and that’s part of why we dismiss it.”<\/p>\n
Britnell’s apparent AI image, which is of a humpback whale and not a southern right whale, might seem innocent but it was accompanied by a political message.<\/p>\n
The post referenced a pledge that the Victorian Liberal Party would not support offshore wind development in the Southern Ocean, citing concerns for the marine environment and whale species.<\/p>\n
There was no disclaimer regarding the origin of the image and whether it was made by AI.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the image was AI, Roma Britnell told the ABC she did not know because a staff member had posted it.<\/p>\n
![\"Liberal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNTN5E_Roma_Britnell_ABC_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nLiberal member for Australia’s South West Coast Roma Britnell.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
But she said she had seen the image and said: “It looked like a whale to me.”<\/p>\n
Federal and state electoral commissions have introduced guidelines around the use of AI in political campaigns but there are no guardrails around the everyday use of AI-generated imagery and material outside of elections.<\/p>\n
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) guidelines say there is no requirement for political parties or campaigners to disclose that they are using a manipulated image or that an image has been manipulated.<\/p>\n
The AEC guidelines say politicians may choose to disclose when an AI tool has been used by including a simple message in the image.<\/p>\n
At a state level, the Victorian Electoral Commission said campaigners were expected to clearly label content that had been created by or modified with AI, as well as properly authorise all material.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNTN6A_AI_SES_ABC_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe Castlemaine State Emergency Service’s branch created and posted this AI-generated image that depicts volunteer crews responding to a callout.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
Britnell’s post was not the only apparently AI-generated picture that has attracted attention in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
While not political, a social media post from a Victorian State Emergency Service (SES) unit that featured an AI-generated image attracted a divided response from the community, highlighting mixed attitudes about such faux photos.<\/p>\n
Some commenters on the Castlemaine SES post made jokes about the generated image, while others questioned why the unit did not use a real photograph of volunteers at a scene.<\/p>\n
The image was clearly labelled as AI-generated, and the unit often posted real photographs of crews on scene.<\/p>\n
Deputy controller Bert Forbes said the AI-generated image posted in November last year was used because volunteers did not have time to take a photo, as they usually would.<\/p>\n
“Since one of our members was experimenting with AI imagery at the time, it seemed like a bit of fun to go ahead and post up something that was clearly not real and over the top.”<\/p>\n
Forbes said the post did not seek to deceive audiences.<\/p>\n
“It might look like a poster for an upcoming action movie,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not real; it’s not something we’d normally post up.”<\/p>\n
Forbes said AI use was not part of the unit’s social media strategy.<\/p>\n
– ABC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jean Bell and Matt Neal, ABC News An apparently AI-generated image of a whale posted on social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,145],"class_list":["post-452511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNTN5N_AI_whale_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n