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St. Louis officials have suspended an active search for monkeys reported loose in the city after artificial intelligence-generated images flooded social media and overshadowed actual tips.
Multiple vervet monkeys were first reported this past week near a park in the northern part of the city, according to local officials.
The sightings quickly triggered what city leaders described as widespread confusion.
“It’s unclear who owns the monkeys, how they got loose, or exactly how many there are,” city Department of Health spokesperson Willie Springer said, KTVI reported.
Springer said the reports sparked “rumor after rumor” as residents began posting claims online.
Some of those claims included assertions that the monkeys had been captured.
Others included images purportedly showing the animals across the city.
Several of those images were later determined to be fake or AI-generated, and some of the generated images got increasingly absurd.
“But as of Monday, the monkeys remained at large,” Springer said.
The volume of online trolling eventually overwhelmed the response effort.
“It’s been a lot in regard to AI and what’s genuine and what’s not,” Springer said.
“People are just having fun. Like I don’t think anyone means harm,” he added.
City officials said there appeared to be some validity to the original monkey sightings.
However, the flood of fabricated content sent police and animal control on what one official privately described as a wild goose chase, the Associated Press reported.
Social media posts even claimed the monkeys were traveling with a goat. The fake reports complicated efforts to track real sightings. With actual leads exhausted, city officials quietly suspended the search this past Tuesday.
Springer said the largest number of monkeys people reported seeing at one time was four.
He also noted that owning monkeys is illegal in the city.
Animal control has been working with primate experts at the St. Louis Zoo to locate the animals.
Vervet monkeys are native to sub-Saharan Africa, where they are commonly seen.
City leaders said they will resume their search efforts if valid sightings are reported.
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