Police are asking kids to stop pulling AI homeless man prank

We’ve been so worried about deepfaked politicians, AI musicians, virtual actresses, and phony satellite imagery that we didn’t even consider the dangers posed by precocious teenagers. Kids are using AI to create images of a disheveled, seemingly unhoused person in their home and sending them to their parents. Understandably, they’re not thrilled and in some instances call the police. The prank has gone viral on TikTok and, in addition to giving parents agita, has become a headache for law enforcement.

The premise is simple enough: kids use Snapchat’s AI tools to create images of a grimy man in their home and tell their parents they let them in to use the bathroom, take a nap, or just get a drink of water. Often they say the person claims to know the parents from work or college. And then, predictably, the parents lose their cool and demand they kick the man out. The kids, of course, record the whole thing, and post their parents reactions to TikTok, where some of the clips have millions of views.

Where things go from problematic to potentially dangerous is when the prank carries on for too long and parents call the authorities. Calls of a home invasion, especially involving children are treated as high priority by police, so pranks like this tie up valuable resources and could actually put the pranksters in danger. Round Rock Police Patrol Division Commander Andy McKinney told NBC that it could even “cause a SWAT response.”

The Salem, MA police department summed it up best in a statement saying, “this prank dehumanizes the homeless, causes the distressed recipient to panic and wastes police resources. Police officers who are called upon to respond do not know this is a prank and treat the call as an actual burglary in progress thus creating a potentially dangerous situation.” So, while we all love a good prank, maybe let this one go.