MLK’s heirs say AI is making it harder to control use of his image
Almost since the day Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down on that April evening in Memphis, his family has done all it can to protect his likeness and legacy.
His estate has challenged the commercial use of his image, filed suits over the use of his copyrighted speeches and policed the use of his recorded voice.
But social media — and now the proliferation of artificial intelligence, which offers powerful new ways to create photos, text, music and video — is making it harder for his heirs to prevent what they see as the exploitation of King’s legacy.
Recently, fake images of the civil rights leader, who died in 1968, have popped up on social media platforms, particularly X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
Most troubling for the family are doctored images linking King’s ideas and philosophies to those of former president Donald Trump, who has been criticized for describing those involved in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests as terrorists; taken heat for his perceived defense of white nationalists; and, in a poll taken the last year of his presidency, was blamed for increasing racial tensions by more than 8 out of 10 Black Americans.
“We are navigating through some of the most dangerous waters that we have ever experienced in our nation,” said Martin Luther King III, the civil rights leader’s son. “When you create a false narrative, which AI is doing in this case, you are not teaching history accurately. There are no boundaries. There are no guardrails.”
Though it’s hard to know if AI was used, as opposed to another type of software, what is clear is that technological advances are making it easier and quicker to generate images that look like authentic photos.
The images of King and Trump were initially posted on Twitter by Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebaneseborn conservative author and founder of Act For America, which the Council on American — Islamic Relations has described as “one of the main sources of growing anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation.”
On her X account, where she has close to 1 million followers, Gabriel is known to promote right-wing conspiracy theories and Trump. Her favorite targets are President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci.
Her posts are often accompanied by doctored or fake images. At least a half dozen times in July, she posted such images of King and Trump.
In several of them, Trump has his arm around King’s shoulder. In one, they are embraced. In another black-and-white image, which has garnered 11 million views since its July 15 posting, the two are depicted walking together triumphantly. The caption: “Two of our nation’s greatest advocates for Civil Rights: MLK and DJT.”
The post also got more than 2,400 comments, most of them negative.
“Wow Brigitte, this is a freshly achieved low. … You could be a respectful human and delete it.”
Another described the image as “utterly vile and disgusting. MLK would have NEVER had anything to do with” Trump.
Gabriel did not respond to several attempts to reach her.
X does not prohibit the sharing of fake images. And artificial intelligence software is now readily available to anybody.
Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., and a close ally of Trump, is conflicted by the images.
“AI can be a landmine. The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” she said, adding that she’s met Gabriel. “Why the fantasy about the relationship? It is likely conjecture to suppose that Martin Luther King Jr. and Donald Trump would be best friends. I would advise everyone to take a deep breath and whisper a prayer.”
King III called it “unconscionable” that someone would link his father to Trump.
“This is a terrible mischaracterization of who Martin Luther King Jr. was. It does not mean that my dad would not have talked to Trump and challenged him, as he did with every president that lived during his life,” he said. “But it’s a different thing to say that he would be in agreement. There are very few things that were done under (Trump) that my father would have embraced.”
Through her spokeswoman, Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and the civil rights leader’s daughter, said she would not comment on the images, because she didn’t want to give them any more attention.
But in a tweet, she wrote: “Many who quote one #MLK line, tweet egregious AI photos of him, and evoke him to deter justice actually despise #TheInconvenientKing.”