OAN Apologizes After Using AI-Generated Images in Segment Praising Women Soldiers

A segment on the MAGA-aligned cable channel One America News (OAN) is drawing attention after it featured AI-generated images of women soldiers while touting a reported increase in female military recruits.

During an interview with host Matt Gaetz, Defense Department spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson claimed the number of female recruits had grown from 16,000 last year to 24,000 this year, crediting the increase to the leadership of Secretary Hegseth and President Donald Trump. As Wilson spoke, four on-screen images of women in combat fatigues appeared — all of them AI-generated, with small watermarks indicating they were created using Elon Musk’s Grok.

A Defense Department spokesperson confirmed the images were not supplied by them. OAN later acknowledged the error, with a network spokesperson telling CNN that the images violated company policy and that an on-air correction had been made. Gaetz also issued an apology on-air, stating, “We made a mistake… We’ll use better judgment going forward.”

OAN has previously faced controversy for promoting Trump’s false 2020 election claims and has settled multiple defamation lawsuits, including with voting technology companies Smartmatic and Dominion. The network’s viewership has declined since being dropped by DirecTV in 2022, but it recently gained attention after Kari Lake announced OAN would provide “newsfeed services” to Voice of America and other U.S.-funded broadcasters.

Credit: CNN Newsource

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