Russian Woman Fined After AI-Generated Bear Image Triggers Real Wildlife Hunt
Published · updated · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: theprint.in ↗
"The joke quickly got out of control. The photograph of the bear spread through messaging apps, and police began receiving alarmed calls from residents."
A resident of Magdagachi in Russia's Amur region used ChatGPT to generate an image of a large brown bear walking down a local street, sent it to a friend as a prank, and watched it go viral through messaging apps. Police received a flood of alarmed calls, and the district head dispatched wildlife rangers to find an animal that did not exist. The woman turned herself in; a court this week fined her 15,000 roubles ($178).
The timing was poor. Russia is in the middle of a genuine bear crisis: at least 26 people have been killed in attacks since spring 2026, driven by a growing bear population (now 308,000, more than double its level three decades ago) and a poor crop of the berries and nuts the animals normally eat. A second woman in Transbaikal was separately fined 30,000 roubles for a similar fake bear post in mid-September.