Matt Gaetz, the former Republican congressman and current host on One America News (OAN), issued an on-air apology on Thursday night after his show used AI-generated fake images of women soldiers. The images, created by Elon Musk's Grok chatbot, appeared during a segment celebrating an increase in female military recruits.
During the Wednesday night interview, Gaetz spoke with Defence Department spokesperson Kingsley Wilson, who touted a rise in female recruitment numbers under the Trump administration. As Wilson spoke, AI-generated photos of women in combat fatigues were displayed on screen, bearing watermarks from Grok, the AI chatbot available on X.
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the department did not provide the images to OAN. The network later admitted to using Grok for the background footage and stated that the images violated company policies. An OAN spokesperson said an on-air correction had been made and additional actions taken to address the issue.
In his apology, Gaetz said the network is usually cautious about showing faces of actual military members due to security concerns, but acknowledged the mistake. “We used AI-generated images of female service members as part of our B-roll package, and we shouldn’t have,” he said. “The DOD didn’t give us these images; Grok did.”
OAN, which has faced financial difficulties after being dropped by major cable providers, has recently secured a deal with Trump senior adviser Kari Lake to air its content on Voice of America. The network has previously settled defamation lawsuits related to election denialism.
