Defense Department Posts Video Littered With AI-Generated Images to Tout High Military Recruitment

Ahmad Austin Jr.Aug 15th, 2025, 5:36 pm

DOD uses AI images in video about recruitment

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A video used by the Department of Defense to boast of high recruitment numbers turned out to be full of AI-generated images.

On Thursday morning, the DOD’s Rapid Response X/Twitter account posted a clip from Matt Gaetz’s show on OAN. In the clip, DOD Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson elaborated on the “fantastic” levels of recruiting the U.S. military has enjoyed since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term:

Happy to be with you and happy to highlight this incredible success that we are seeing across our armed forces — women in particular. These numbers are fantastic. Under the previous administration, we had about 16,000 female recruits last year. Now, we’ve got upwards of 24,000. This is a nearly 7,000 person increase in female recruits alone.

And again, it’s not just women. It’s men, too. The Army, the Air Force, the Navy, everyone is hitting their metrics early; and it is a testament to Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s leadership. It turns out young Americans want to sign up to be war fighters. They don’t want this ideology that the previous administration tried to hoist on them. They want to get back to basics, and that’s what we’re doing here at DOD; and the numbers are just proof in the pudding.

. @PressSecDOD "The Army, the Air Force, the Navy, EVERYONE IS HITTING THEIR (RECRUITING) METRICS EARLY!

It is a TESTAMENT to Secretary Hegseth and President Trump's LEADERSHIP!" pic.twitter.com/5YRzHi0FmA

— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) August 14, 2025

As Wilson spoke, several images of female soldiers were shown on screen next here. Every single one of them was generated by AI, as evidenced by the Grok watermarks found on them.