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The creator of a bizarre AI-generated video showing Donald Trump’s vision Gaza Strip has spoken out, saying the clip was intended as satire.
Last week, the US president took to his social media platform Truth Social to share the 35-second clip, that includes Mr Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sipping cocktails and lounging topless beside a pool.
The video begins with masked, gun-wielding men and small children picking through rubble in the city’s ruins, before “Gaza 2025” and “What’s Next?” appear on the screen in bold, red, white and blue letters.
“Donald’s coming to set you free, bringing the life for all to see, no more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here,” blares the backing track over the montage of the newly-regenerated Gaza.
Solo Avital, a US-based filmmaker and artist, said he made this video while experimenting with AI software in early February, and he was “surprised” when the clip went viral.
“We are storytellers, we’re not provocateurs, we sometimes do satire pieces such as this one was supposed to be,” he told the Guardian. “This is the duality of the satire: it depends what context you bring to it to make the punchline or the joke. Here there was no context and it was posted without our consent or knowledge.”
Mr Avital, an Israeli-born US citizen, said he was trying out the Arcana AI platform, and decided to create “satire about this megalomaniac idea about putting statues [in Gaza]” to see what the tool could do.
His business partner, Ariel Vromen, then posted it on his Instagram page before Mr Avital convinced him to take it down because “it might be a little insensitive and we don’t want to take sides”. He denies sharing the video with the president.
The AI-generated clip emerged shortly after the US president unveiled his property development plan for Gaza, under which he said he wants to “clean out” the population of about 2 million people to create the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Elsewhere in the video, streets are lined with golden Trump statues and stores selling busts of his head – including a clip of a child holding a giant, golden Trump balloon. The words “Trump Gaza” appear everywhere around the region, inscribed on signs and buildings.
Then, a group of bearded, long-haired belly dancers perform on the beach. Trump, who is wearing a full suit, is then seen dancing with – and ogling at – another belly dancer inside a hall. Trump and Netanyahu sunbathe beside the pool wearing only a small pair of trunks and sipping on cocktails, surrounded by lavish apartment blocks.
