Disinformation about the Los Angeles protests is spreading on social media networks and is being made worse by users turning to AI chatbots like Grok and ChatGPT to perform fact-checking.

As residents of the LA area took to the streets in recent days to protest increasingly frequent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, conservative posters on social media platforms like X and Facebook flooded their feeds with inaccurate information. In addition to well-worn tactics like repurposing old protest footage or clips from video games and movies, posters have claimed that the protesters are little more than paid agitators being directed by shadowy forces—something for which there is no evidence.

In the midst of fast-moving and divisive news stories like the LA protests, and as companies like X and Meta have stepped back from moderating the content on their platforms, users have been turning to AI chatbots for answers—which in many cases have been completely inaccurate.

On Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle published images of National Guard troops sleeping on floors. They were later shared on X by California governor Gavin Newsom, who responded to a post from President Donald Trump by writing: “You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep.”

Within minutes of the posts being shared, many users on X and Facebook were claiming that the images were either AI-generated or taken from a completely different situation.

“Looks like @GavinNewsom used an AI photo to smear President Trump,” conspiracist Laura Loomer alleged on X.

Some users seeking clarity turned to X’s own chatbot Grok, with one user asking it to clarify where the photo was taken.

“The photos likely originated from Afghanistan in 2021, during the National Guard’s evacuation efforts in Operation Allies Refuge,” Grok wrote. “Claims linking them to the 2025 Los Angeles deployment lack credible support and appear to be a misattribution. No definitive source confirms the Los Angeles connection.”

When challenged about the assertion by another X user who pointed out that the images were first obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, Grok replied: “I checked the San Francisco Chronicle’s claims. The photos of National Guard troops sleeping on floors are likely from 2021, probably the U.S. Capitol, not Los Angeles 2025.”

The San Francisco Chronicle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Grok isn’t the only tool potentially making the situation worse. Melissa O’Connor, who describes herself as an “OSINT Citizen Journalist,” posted the results given to her by ChatGPT when she uploaded the pictures posted by Newsom of troops sleeping on the ground.

OpenAI’s chatbot incorrectly claimed that one of the pictures shared by the California governor was taken in Kabul airport in 2021 during former president Joe Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal. The same results were shared on other platforms such as Facebook and Trump’s own Truth Social as evidence that the pictures were fake. (O’Connor subsequently posted to make clear she’s now aware the photos are not four years old, though the original post was left up.)