'AI homeless man prank' on social media prompts concern from local authorities

He’s gray-haired, bearded, wearing no shoes and standing at Rae Spencer’s doorstep.“Babe,” the content creator wrote in a text to her husband.

He’s gray-haired, bearded, wearing no shoes and standing at Rae Spencer’s doorstep.

“Babe,” the content creator wrote in a text to her husband. “Do you know this man? He says he knows you?”

Spencer’s husband, who responded immediately with “no,” appeared to express shock when she then sent more images of the man pictured inside their home, sitting on their couch and taking a nap on their bed. She said he FaceTimed her, “shaking” in fear.

But the man wasn’t real. Spencer, based in St. Augustine, Florida, had created the images using an artificial intelligence-based generator. She sent them to her husband and posted their exchange to TikTok as part of a viral trend that some online refer to as the “AI homeless man prank.”

Over 5 million people have liked Spencer’s video on TikTok, where the hashtag #homelessmanprank populated more than 1,200 videos, most of them related to the recent trend. Some have also used the hashtag #homelessman to post their videos, all of which center on the idea of tricking people into believing that there is a stranger inside their home. Several people have also posted tutorials about how to make the images. The trend has also spread to other social media platforms, including Snapchat and Instagram.