Elon Musk has been turned into an armed robber using his own Grok AI system in a deepfake video.
The technology has also been used to create fake videos of important figures, including Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and Vladimir Putin committing crimes.
A faked clip shows Mr Musk burning a convenience store using a fire gun, before he is arrested and handcuffed by police.
Later in the same video Mr Trump is shown entering a shop while threatening staff at gunpoint, his rival Kamala Harris and Vladimir Putin are both shown being arrested for similar crimes.
The former president is depicted wearing an orange jumper while carrying two black guns, as shopkeepers follow him with their arms in the air, before being led away by officers.
Ms Harris, his Democratic rival, is then shown screaming while being detained by uniformed officers.Â
Elon Musk has been depicted threatening staff with a flame gun at a convenience store in a deepfake video using his own Grok AI system
Mr Musk’s technology was also used to show Donald Trump threatening staff with a gun
Joe Biden, the current president, is depicted threatening staff but from a wheelchair, in a nod the questions over his age and ability which plagued his re-election campaign before he dropped out of the nomination last month.
The deepfaked videos were created by AI studio The Dor Brothers, Indy100 reported.
Sharing the clips on Mr Musk’s platform, X, the studio wrote: ‘Somebody said uncensored! Thank you @grok for letting us all have some fun.’Â
Other figures given the deepfake treatment in the clip include Putin, former US president Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Pope Francis.
A notably younger version of the Russian president is shown handling a golden and aiming it at shop staff before being arrested.
Facebook co-founder Mr Zuckeberg is given a baseball bat as a weapon and is depicted with a reptile sitting on his shoulder as he strides through the store.Â
All three figures are shown being escorted away by a large group of officers.Â
A deepfake clip of Kamala Harris carrying a large weapon in a store
The clip also showed Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg walking through a shop holding a baseball bat and with a reptile on his shoulder
Current president Joe Biden is depicted holding staff at gunpoint in a wheelchair
Russian president Vladimir Putin was shown committing crimes with a golden gun
Many users took to the social media site to comment on the increasingly blurred line between real and deepfaked clips.
Some suggested that the technology could see people ‘manipulated’ by fake videos.
One commented: ‘So this is the terrifying part. No matter what side you’re on, even if there were real video evidence of people committing crimes, it can be dismissed as AI.
‘This tech is getting better and better all the time. Lots of people will be easily fooled or manipulated.’Â
The deepfake clip also featured former president Barack Obama holding a large knife in a supermarket
Pope Francis was shown holding a pair of guns while appearing to rob a store
The deepfake clip was created by AI studio The Dor Brothers, using Elon Musk’s Grok system
It comes amid alarm over the tide of disinformation in the run-up to November’s US presidential election, amid concerns that deepfaked videos could drive people toward or away from candidates.
Mr Musk himself faced criticism last week for sharing a fake clip of Ms Harris, in which a voiceover mimicks the vice-president calling Mr Biden ‘senile’.
He later clarified it was a parody, with the video originally showing no indication that it was for satire.
Another doctored clip was shared last month appearing to show Biden cursing his critics – including using anti-LGBTQ slurs – after he announced he would not seek reelection and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination.Â
