COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Leila Willmore says she was first alerted to AI-generated content of her son at the end of September. Since then, things have only continued to escalate.
“They were seeing Zachary in articles coming to their Facebook, like popping up one after the other,” Willmore said. “When I would try to look up the sources, all of them were fake. Not a single one was was real, but the information was accurate.”
The AI-generated content in question stems from September 2021, when Zachary Willmore was crowned Rock Bridge High Schools first male homecoming queen.
“It also made it sound like it had just happened and said breaking news with all this kind of sensationalized text in red and bold to get your attention,” Leila Willmore said.
Zachary Willmore said he thinks the AI-generated articles started after other posts were made celebrating the anniversary.
“At first it was pretty similar to the story,” Zachary said. “The first couple of articles that were put out about it were still saying that it was four years ago, then it changed to this year.”
Many of the posts have garnered thousands of likes, comments and shares. After she was first made aware, Leila Willmore said the posts stopped for about two weeks. However, they started popping up again, this time a new issue followed.
“This past week, the pictures are not him anymore. Many of them are really feminine versions of him,” she said. “The information in the article may be true and not mean still or anything, but the image is not true and it also didn’t happen just now.”
In 2021, Zachary’s win caused a swirl of controversy when he chose the title of queen instead of King. Following his crowning moment, Zachary Willmore at the time explained a social media poll was behind the decision. Today, Leila Willmore said the resurgence of the her son’s 2021 win has stirred up a new wave of backlash.
“I’ll be honest with you I try to protect myself from it, but I do hear that and see that,” Leila Willmore said. “The people who say those hateful things, they don’t know him. Not a single one of them know him or his heart and how kind he is.”
In an email to ABC 17 News, Columbia Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark said the district has received some “disparaging messages and phone calls” on the issue, but none have been direct threats.
“Nearly all of the messages are coming from outside the district and some from even outside of Missouri. A few have posed as parents, but upon further investigation are found to not be parents in the district,” Baumstark wrote.
Baumstark also said the images being spread are not real and altered by artificial intelligence.
“It seems the intent is to create discontent and to cause harm by sensationalizing the event and misrepresenting what actually happened,” Baumstark said.
Zachary Willmore said it’s not the hateful messages or comments that worry him, it’s the AI content.
“If AI did decide to mass report on a different issue and flood Facebook feeds with different types of stories it could lead to a mass misinformation,” Zachary Willmore said.
He’s also concerned by his high school and hometown being listed on some of the posts that are circulating.
“If someone really crazy saw my article and was that upset, I’m not even at that school anymore,” Zachary said. “Its like a misdirected hatred that is going to put people that’s not even me in danger.”
Leila Willmore said she has contacted the Columbia Police Department about the posts and articles on social media.
“They just said to report it to whatever the platform was to Facebook or whoever it was putting it out,” Leila said.
Zachary said he is considering taking legal action if the posts continue to get worse.
Now, Leila Willmore and her family are left with questions.
“Why is it happening? Why is it happening now? Who’s doing it? Is it a person? Is it just an algorithm?” Leila said. “It is really concerning and it blurs the lines of reality so that none of us now we’re all questioning what is real and what’s not real.”
Baumstark said the ability to recognize the use and abuse of AI technology is important as it continues to advance. She is also calling for accountability from social media platforms.
“It is also incumbent upon the platforms hosting the content to flag and identify such posts as AI-generated if they want to maintain the integrity of the platform or to filter out fake content that presented as truthful,” Baumstark said.
