There has always been a societal risk of entering a "you can't believe your eyes"/"nothing is true and everything is possible" phase as AI tools get better. (Two years ago, we didn't have this problem as AI rarely put 5 fingers on human hands, etc.) It's notable that 1.) a presidential candidate is loudly "going there", and 2.) that he is doing so on a matter that is so trivially debunked. [ https://x.com/shayan86/status/1822680679047385597 , https://x.com/annetteish/status/1822698811312988269 , etc] For what it's worth, the conspiracy (that the image of a large crowd was AI generated) had gone viral on Truth Social long before Trump decided to post about it (the rally was on August 8). Had his first foray into this kind of disinformation not involved a photo where there were literally thousands of eye witnesses, the outcome would have been different and far less predictable.