The Professional Jockeys Association (PJA), which represents Britain's jockeys, has expressed alarm over the spread of fake stories featuring AI-generated images on social media. The trade body said it has reported the cases to the platform but achieved only limited success in removing the content.
On Friday, the PJA issued a statement alerting the public to the activity and warning of the risks of sharing the content. The association said it is aware of several Facebook pages publishing entirely fictional content and news stories about professional jockeys, including obviously AI-generated imagery. These articles are often defamatory and have no basis in fact.
The PJA noted that the accounts are often published from countries in the Far East and provide fake addresses. One such account gave an address in Arizona despite being managed from Vietnam. The PJA urges the public, the media and racing stakeholders to ignore this content.
The statement added: “The PJA remains committed to protecting the welfare and integrity of its members. We are working with relevant partners to try to address this spread of malicious, false information and will consider all options should our members be defamed.” The PJA advises any jockey who becomes aware of fake stories about them to contact its social media consultant, former police superintendent Sean Memory.
