Stolen Valor in the AI Age.
“Jessica Foster” AI Fake
Jessica Foster, the MAGA dream girl has become a major online personality after a viral Instagram account gained over a million followers in four months. The account shows the woman in military settings, near fighter jets, and alongside global leaders. Trouble is, she’s an AI generated fake.
AI MAGA Influencer, Service Member Scams Fuel ‘Digital Stolen Valor’ Rise
By Ryan Thomas LaBee
A viral Instagram account featuring a blonde Army service member named Jessica Foster, posing alongside world leaders, racked up more than 1 million followers before it was revealed to be fake.
This is only one example in a growing wave of AI-generated personas using military identity to build audiences and generate income online.
The administrators behind Military Phony, a watchdog group that tracks fraudulent military claims, described “digital stolen valor” as the online equivalent of wearing medals you didn’t earn, using exaggerated or fabricated credentials to gain respect, sympathy or opportunity that would otherwise belong to someone else.
They draw a distinction between violations of the federal Stolen Valor Act, which involve falsely claiming certain military honors, such as the Purple Heart or Silver Star, for tangible benefit and broader forms of impersonation that may not meet that legal threshold but are still widely referred to as “stolen valor.”
The rise of AI-generated influencers and impersonated service members is exposing what some observers are beginning to see as a new form of “digital stolen valor,” where synthetic personas adopt the credibility of military service or other trusted professions like nursing, to attract followers, drive engagement, and, in some cases, generate income.
While impersonation and fraud online are nothing new, advances in artificial intelligence are making these identities easier to create, harder to detect, and more effective at exploiting trust.
The ‘Emily Hart’ Account
One such account, operating under the name “Emily Hart,” built a large following by pairing political messaging with curated lifestyle content, eventually directing users toward paid adult content subscriptions.The persona was later revealed to be AI-generated, created by a 22-year-old medical student, according to a report by Wired.
Brave new world- for scammers. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty even, or perhaps especially, in this new AI era. Thanks to our own Military Phony for taking the lead on the latest SV scam.
Category: Stolen Valor
Believe 10% of what you hear and maybe 45% of what you see. If it is online, drop that to about 5%.
Indeed.
More like 1%.
One of the things my company does is manufacture packaging, but we also produce advertising materials. One of our large insurance clients used an image that didn’t fill the area they intended to use for that image. Using AI tools I was shocked at how quickly those tools created an entire old mill style ceiling with beams, sprinklers, and common colors to match the original image.
I’ve done some experimenting with animation as well, I took an old photo of our basic training platoon and instructed AI to make all the soldiers smile, wave, and turn to each other…the result is a bit uncanny as guys I haven’t seen in almost 50 years are suddenly moving and smiling as I remember them.
The image looked great, and I was reminded that AI today is as bad as it will ever be…it will only get better every day and it’s already frighteningly good…
This stuff can be convincing. I ran across a Christian Metal band a while back that I really liked. Upon doing research, discovered it was AI. Kinda pizzed me off. The music is still good, but I’d rather have REAL people performing it….
Did you ever listen to Stryper? I still have a few of their albums packed away. I was a Metal Head from back in the day…..
Mike
USAF Retired
Yep. I like them. Real people too!!
At my age I probably shouldn’t be listening to Metal, but I’m too deaf to hear anything else….lol
AI does Marty Robbins?
Not to mention… Kermit sings Snoop Dogg:
People fall for this junk regularly. If you’ve ever been on the now-cess pit platform of Quora, there are tons of fake profiles with beautiful women in ludicrous poses with horrifically inaccurate uniforms and captions like “strong woman serving my country.” Idiots comment favorably and then get a “follow me for a secret message” comment back. No doubt to be followed by a request for money.
Old white people are dumb as shit with their money. The internet has turned our parents into what our parents claimed TV would do to us.
I do have a meme I created
And they’ll still…
Well, I am a pretty old white person, and nobody has ever swindled me out of a dollar. My parents can’t be swindled either, as they both died over fifteen years ago.
That’s right, you get you a young Somali guy. They can turn a learing center into a cash cow.
Evidently you haven’t talked with a young white person lately!
BTW, what does being white have to do with it? Oh that’s right, you’re from the side that believes black people are too dumb to have computers. No computer, no Internet to try to understand.
Glad to see that we’ve started outsourcing catfishing to foreigners like everything else. Immigrants really can do everything better than Americans.
You really ARE your own Cousin, aren’t you? Now go French-kiss a pissed-off porcupine right square in the ass!
C’mon, Lars, that’s you, isn’t it?
I was going to accuse him of that, but you beat me to it.
I guess he didn’t make a run at the President then…
At least not yet.
Nah, Lars would have STARTED by calling you a stupid f*****. He has incredible people skills.
I don’t think so. There’s a noticeable lack of rage, profanity, and personal attacks.
This…
Concur.
Whose this “we”? You got a mouse in your pocket?
The shirt’s a good sign the images are fake. That, and the backwards flag in the second photo; note the flags behind Trump are oriented differently. Besides the obvious NCO trigger of “what the hell is this ‘Soldier’ wearing”, given the form-fitting t-shirt exposing her midriff, there’s the “something ain’t right here” seemingly Velcro patches worn on it. I know the Army has slacked off on standards, and a lot of units permit Voyote Brown unit t-shirts to be worn under the blouse, and tops to be shed whenever there’s a work detail, but I’ve never seen anyone with an undershirt that has patches. That would be uncomfortable as hell under a blouse, or especially body armor, particularly the one on the chest.
Now don’t get me wrong. I was known to enjoy working alongside the females from S2, and to a somewhat lesser extent S1 and S4, when we dropped tops to jump the TOC. Some were better endowed than others, and a few wore shirts that accentuated what they had, but I’ve never seen a Soldier wearing a shirt like PVT AI.
Her skirt in Class A is way too short, also.
Trump sitting in the background? Plus, every female for realz that I have seen pics of in that uniform is wearing pants and low heel issue style low quarters. I doubt they are even allowed to wear high heels.
High heels on ship would be ill advised.
Not those “fuck me” heels.
Wait. People thought those pictures were real?
Come on, Trump would be grabbing her by the p….
Or so the Leftard media would have us believe.
Well Sleepy Joe would have been looking to have a good sniff.
I mean…C’MON! REALLY! She’s not going to be in the Oval Office in BDU’s much less just an undershirt. Plus the more obvious…
What super hot women in the military really look like….
*runs*
Barf.
I hereby nominate ChipNASA to latrine duty in the WOT Throne Room for the duration.
The duration of earth’s existence!
We all served with a someone who would.
Elaine Ricci was unavailable for comment.
Could “Jessica Foster” be as real as Elaine Ricci?
Inquiring minds want to know.