AMUR: A woman in Russia's Far East was fined this week after an AI-generated image of a bear, created to prank a friend, went viral and triggered a real-life hunt, the regional courts said.
Russian authorities are on high alert this year due to a spate of deadly attacks in several regions, where growing bear populations and a poor crop of berries and pine nuts have increased the chances of encounters with humans, experts say.
The resident of Magdagachi settlement, Amur region, used ChatGPT to generate the picture of a large brown bear seemingly strolling down a local street and sent it to her friend in September.
"The joke quickly got out of control. The photograph of the bear spread through messaging apps, and police began receiving alarmed calls from residents," the Amur courts' press service said in a statement, describing how the district head dispatched wildlife rangers to deal with the phantom animal.
