An authentic nonetheless picture from an eyewitness video exhibits the masked ICE agent who shot Renee Nicole Good (Left). Customers on social media “unmasked” the agent utilizing Grok (Proper). Consultants warn AI can’t “unmask” people. NPR is publishing each pictures to point out how AI is getting used to control pictures of reports occasions.
Screenshots by NPR/Picture by Courtney Theophin/NPR
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Screenshots by NPR/Picture by Courtney Theophin/NPR
Within the hours after a deadly capturing of Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis, a picture of the ICE agent who took the photographs started to flow into.
Whereas the agent wore a masks in eyewitness movies taken of the occasion, he seemed to be unmasked in lots of the social media posts. That picture appeared to have been generated by xAI’s generative AI chatbot, Grok, in response to customers on X asking the bot to “unmask” the agent.
NPR is publishing each pictures to point out how AI is getting used to control actual proof of reports occasions, however utilizing AI to attempt to “unmask” anybody is ill-advised, in line with specialists.
“AI-powered enhancement tends to hallucinate facial particulars resulting in an enhanced picture that could be visually clear, however which will even be devoid of actuality with respect to biometric identification,” Hany Farid, a professor on the College of California, Berkeley who specializes within the evaluation of digital pictures, wrote to NPR in an e mail.
Regardless, the AI-generated picture started to flow into late Wednesday, together with a reputation — Steve Grove. The origin of that identify was not instantly clear, however by Thursday morning, it was resulting in an outpouring of anger in direction of at the least two Steve Groves who’re on no account linked to the capturing.
Assertion from the Minnesota Star Tribune: We’re at the moment monitoring a coordinated on-line disinformation marketing campaign incorrectly figuring out the ICE agent concerned in yesterday’s capturing. To be clear, the ICE agent has no recognized affiliation with the Star Tribune. We encourage…
— The Minnesota Star Tribune (@StarTribune) January 8, 2026
One was the proprietor of a gun store in Springfield, Mo., named Steven Grove. That Grove awoke to find his Fb web page underneath assault. “I by no means go by ‘Steve,'” Steven Grove instructed the Springfield Every day Citizen. “After which, after all, I am not in Minnesota. I do not work for ICE, and I’ve, you understand, 20 inches of hair on my head, however no matter.”
The second Steve Grove was the writer of the Minnesota Star Tribune. In an announcement, the paper stated it was monitoring what it believed to be a “coordinated on-line disinformation marketing campaign.”
“We encourage folks on the lookout for factual data reported and written by educated journalists, not bots, to comply with and subscribe to the Minnesota Star Tribune,” the paper wrote.
In the meantime, the Star Tribune and others, together with NPR, have recognized the identify of the ICE agent as Jonathan Ross. Court docket paperwork present Ross was dragged by a automotive throughout one other site visitors cease in June of final 12 months in Bloomington, Minn.
