Internet detectives are misusing AI to find Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter

The FBI shared photos of a ‘person of interest,’ but people online are upscaling them using AI.

byJay Peters

Sep 11, 2025, 5:26 PM EDT

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Screenshots: X/Grok

Jay Petersis a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

Earlier today, the FBI shared two blurry photos on X of a person of interest in the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Numerous users replied with AI-upscaled, “enhanced” versions of the pictures almost immediately, turning the pixelated surveillance shots into sharp, high-resolution images. But AI tools aren’t uncovering secret details in a fuzzy picture, they’re inferring what might be there — and they have a track record of showing things that don’t exist.

Many AI-generated photo variations were posted under the original images, some apparently created with X’s own Grok bot, others with tools like ChatGPT. They vary in plausibility, though some are obviously off, like an “AI-based textual rendering” showing a clearly different shirt and Gigachad-level chin. The images are ostensibly supposed to help people find the person of interest, although they’re also eye-grabbing ways to get likes and reposts.

But it’s unlikely any of them are more helpful than the FBI’s photos. In past incidents, AI upscaling has done things like “depixelating” a low-resolution picture of President Barack Obama into a white man and adding a nonexistent lump to President Donald Trump’s head. It extrapolates from an existing image to fill in gaps, and while that can be useful under certain circumstances, you definitely shouldn’t treat it as hard evidence in a manhunt.

Here is the original post from the FBI, for reference:

We are asking for the public’s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.

1-800-CALL-FBI

Digital media tips: https://t.co/K7maX81TjJ pic.twitter.com/ALuVkTXuDc

— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 11, 2025

And below are some examples of attempted “enhancements.”

Image: @JohnNosta

Image: @kilundeezy

Image: @MoviePopcornPop

Image: @RealKenWalls

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