Thousands of people took to the streets in Dublin to attend a Halloween parade that never came, according to reporting by The Independent. Why did they do such a thing? It was all due to an AI-generated ad that promoted the fake event.
The My Spirit Halloween website advertised the completely fabricated Macnas Halloween Parade, which was supposed to take place from 7PM to 9PM on the streets of Dublin. News of the parade quickly spread online, and it even received a news ranking on Google.
So, yeah, thousands of people put on their Halloween costumes and stood on the street for a couple of hours, waiting for an event that would never happen. They even left room in the street for the parade to pass by. That’s thoughtful, but also a bit sad.
The situation forced Ireland’s police force to put out a message to urge would-be parade-goers to “disperse safely.” A spokesperson for the organization said that “contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin city center this evening or tonight.”
Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin City Centre this evening or tonight.
All those gathered on O’Connell Street in expectation of such a parade are asked to disperse safely.
Thank you. pic.twitter.com/KmVPFKEZbP
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) October 31, 2024
Local city councilor Janice Boylan expressed disappointment over the whole situation.“Everyone is trying to have a fun and safe Halloween. Having a parade to go to sounded really good,” she said. “I know an awful lot of people turned up. It’s a terrible pity.”
The My Spirit Halloween listing has been taken down, but there remains the question as to why it turned up in the first place. It’s worth noting that this is a different entity from the popular seasonal retailer Spirit Halloween.
The My Spirit Halloween website looks to come from Pakistan and posts all kinds of AI-generated content like the ad that caused all of this trouble, according to Yahoo News. This particular post happened to get picked up by TikTok and Google, causing the rapid dissemination of the, literal, fake news.
It’s pretty wild, right? An AI-generated post likely created in Pakistan caused thousands of actual people to take to the streets halfway across the globe. What is that curse again? Oh yeah. “May you live in interesting times.”
