“People have to be aware of how realistic the AI is getting…” he said. “It can be dangerous if used for malicious reasons. For me, it was all fun and games.”
A St. Louis man admits that he saw the post about Vervet monkeys on the loose in St. Louis, then created his own pictures using AI for the sake of entertainment and content creation.
On Friday, Khori Lamar posted a picture of a monkey propped up on a street sign as he waited for his son’s school bus to arrive, but he told 5 On Your Side that he never actually saw a monkey in St. Louis city.
“I took a picture of the street sign, and I used my AI tools and put a monkey on that, then I posted that on social media. Once I saw the response from that, I ran with it,” he said.
His post was viewed over 300,000 times.
He continued to post these fake photos while Animal Control was looking for real monkeys. He created a picture of the monkey in the passenger seat of his car, on a bed inside of a home, and on a couch inside a home.
Lamar also said he put his AI-generated picture into an AI app to find out if it would get flagged as AI, and he said AI was confused and thought the pictures were real.
He even took it a step further and put his AI pictures into another app to create videos within minutes.
Lamar said his experience has led him to believe that the original sighting of the monkeys in St. Louis may have been AI too.
He has named his AI monkey George. A name inspired by his childhood shows like George of the Jungle and Curious George.
“People have to be aware of how realistic the AI is getting. It’s becoming so advanced, month by month,” he said. “It can be dangerous if used for malicious reasons. For me, it was all fun and games.”
Lamar said he intentionally picked a different type of monkey to differentiate them from the original post about the vervet monkeys on the loose.
“I just know the psychology of people, Lamar said. “I want to engage people, but I try to be tactical about it.”
It’s been five days since 5 On Your Side received confirmation that the Animal Care and Control Division was looking for monkeys in the city of St. Louis, but they have not reported even one monkey found yet.
This story has not only gained local attention but also national attention.
This confession highlights how accessible and dangerous AI-generated content can be. It also shows how deception can interfere with public safety and public trust.
