Despite Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health update and photograph showing him to be alive and well, conspiracy theorists continue to push baseless claims that the image of the 84-year-old sitting upright in bed is AI-generated.
Laura Loomer, a MAGA conspiracy theorist who has the ear of President Donald Trump, said that McConnell’s update was “bulls***” and outlined why she believed the photo was AI-generated. Last week she said that a “high-level source close to the White House” told her that McConnell was “brain dead” and “not coming back.”
The Independent has reached out to McConnell’s office for comment about the conspiracies.
After weeks of growing speculation over the Kentucky senator’s health, he issued a statement Sunday evening in a bid to quell the rumors.
“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion,” McConnell said in the statement. “I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital.”
His statement was accompanied by a photograph beside his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, and a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post, but that has failed to put a stop to rampant conspiracy theories, particularly on Elon Musk’s X platform.
Researchers, journalists and pundits have called out misinformation on the platform.
“Adding “the McConnell photo was AI” to my long list of left-coded conspiracies and misinformation that could be stopped with an ounce of critical thinking,” said Mackenzie Lockhart, a quantitative researcher. “Obviously they wouldn’t bother faking a newspaper in the photo if it wasn’t today’s paper, even if the photo was AI/fake!”
“Seriously wild how much misinformation gets around because people want to believe it when it doesn’t make any sense,” Lockhart added.
“This post has 3.7M views, zero community notes, and it’s just completely made up nonsense,” journalist Isaac Saul said of a post falsely claiming the photo of McConnell was from three years ago.
“There is no “widely shared 2023 version” of the same photo, and if McConnell was trying to fool anyone do you really think he’d share an already-public photo?” Saul added. “Like, c’mon.”
X’s AI chatbot Grok made matters worse by interacting with Loomer’s post and replying to a user who asked if the photograph of McConnell was fake. “Yes, it’s AI-generated and fake,” Grok replied.
“Funny memes about Mitch McConnell aside, the replies are a mess,” commented journalist Oliver Jia. “The fact that people have to ask Grok if this photo is AI, and then they base their entire worldview on what the AI says, is not a good sign of what’s to come.”
“This is a real photo,” said the Republicans Against Trump group. “You can see McConnell holding a copy of today’s Washington Post sports section.”