AI propaganda from Washington (2 videos)
- Moritz Lapke
- Jul 27
- 2 min read
In June 2025, the government announced a new immigration detention center in the United States. It shall be built in Florida, on the site of a former airport. The name "Alligator Alcatraz" gets advertised.
(The name was chosen for a reason: It is a combination of the area surrounding the site, which has a large alligator population . On the other hand, it is a reference to the infamous former prison island of Alcatraz , which is located on the west coast of the USA.)
Homeland Security posts an apparently AI-generated image.
It shows alligators with caps that say "ICE." (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
The White House picks up on the motif and also posts:
User-produced clips about Alligator Alcatraz are created.
The following video is rather abstract. It doesn't display any explicitly political content, but rather seems like a charged, subtly threatening situation in a backroom scenario (a place from which one cannot escape) .
Also interesting is the following post, which the White House published on July 11, 2025:
Public reactions are mixed. Many users are both mocking and puzzled by this PR strategy on X. Some politicians are publicly expressing concern that the US is making a fool of itself with such actions.
The White House reacts:
Some public user responses suggest that Trump is effectively working for Israel's interests. This narrative can also be found in AI content:
The following image was posted by Homeland Security:
Less than 3 hours later, a user responded by manipulating the image.
The obvious motifs are: the national flag of Israel; people who look like Orthodox Jews; an LGBTQ flag; and the US flag on the ground. Logos can be read: Palantir and ADL .
On September 30, 2025, OpenAI releases version 2 of the Sora video model.
Until then, the company was less known for the quality of its video models, but rather for the impressive capabilities of its global flagship:
The LLM ChatGPT.
(Currently ranked 6th among the world's most visited websites.)
But this changes overnight. In terms of quality, the model makes huge leaps forward compared to its predecessor.
In addition, the new video model offers the possibility of incorporating specific characters into the videos based on a template .
The company has achieved a masterpiece of modern marketing:
Memes featuring CEO Sam Altman go viral.
This is what happens if you bet against me.
This is unreal!
I'm gonna touch the purple one.
I am loco, loco, loco..
A narrative repeats itself in the videos:
Altman needs more GPUs (graphics processing units).
Critical voices are being raised:
How can the gigantic financial sums that the company devours in research costs be justified?
Are AI videos really that expensive and necessary for society?
Altman replies:
Most of the capital is being raised to build AI that advances science.
If you make people smile along the way, that's nice too.
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
