After villagers in Cluj attacked an ambulance crew with axes, clubs and stones following false TikTok posts, Romania's interior ministry rebutted the old rumour of a 'black ambulance' that kidnaps children, now circulating with AI-generated or edited images and videos. A rock thrown through a window sent glass into the driver's eyes; he drove to Cluj-Napoca for emergency surgery.
State Sen. Scott Wiener's congressional campaign took down ConnieChan.ai, a chatbot parody of rival Connie Chan, and is removing its billboards after Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats called it 'a gross misuse of technology' that put words in a woman's mouth. Chan's spokesperson called it a 'bigotry bot'; Wiener said it 'clearly missed the mark' and apologised.
A super PAC backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Senate bid is running a $10 million ad, developed by the American Principles Project, that uses generative AI to put the 1964 'daisy girl' on an operating table before an AI-generated James Talarico. Talarico's campaign says he does not support gender reassignment surgery for minors and calls the 'AI deep fake ad' 'flat out lying'.
US Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Republican, posted an image putting Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's face in place of Nicolás Maduro's as the Venezuelan was taken, blindfolded and bound, to the United States, captioned 'What awaits him...'. Eduardo Bolsonaro reshared it on X as an 'AI photo', quipping that Lula's party could not take it to Brazil's electoral court.
Callers posing as a National Bank of Romania representative and a police officer sent a woman photos of ID cards and other documents created with AI, persuading her to transfer her savings, Alba county police said. An officer blocked the transfer and recovered all 68,989 lei; the scammers remain unidentified.
Scammers in Larissa reportedly recorded a mother's voice through a supposed wrong-number call, then used AI to clone it and phone her child, home alone, warning of an electrical fault and fire risk. According to onlarissa.gr, the child bagged cash and jewellery and left them at the building's ground-floor entrance, where the thieves collected them. Hellenic Police are investigating.
A social media user calling herself 'Encarni Segura' reportedly posts AI-generated images of romantic and sexual fantasies with actors including Santiago Segura, Nathan Fillion and Ethan Hawke, in Segura's case impersonating his wife. According to Telecinco's 'Fiesta', Segura called it 'unsettling' but has not filed a complaint, saying current law offers no protection; the accounts remain open.
