A Florida woman confessed this week that she lied to police about being raped by a homeless man, whose photo she generated using artificial intelligence, to complete the viral “AI Homeless Man” TikTok challenge. According to a St. Petersburg police report obtained by The Smoking Gun, 32-year-old Brooke Schinault called 911 in early October to report a male intruder had forced his way into her home and sexually assaulted her. During a subsequent interview, Schinault gave police a photo she claimed to have taken of the vagrant, showing a white male who appeared to be in his 30s, wearing a dirty jacket and a hood over his head. However, her story fell apart when one of the officers recognized the image. “As I am familiar with many social media sites and trends, I recognized the male as a TikTok challenge that is viral … called ‘AI Homeless Man’ challenge,’” Det. Dagni Closser wrote in the police report. “I went through several TikTok reels of this challenge and found [photos of] the same man the female claimed she took.” When questioned, Schinault insisted she was telling the truth and said she only used AI to “enhance” the blurry image, but was unable to provide police with the original photo. Schinault eventually confessed when she was taken into custody for filing a false police report, admitting she “wanted attention” and had been dealing with depression. She told police she used Google and ChatGPT to generate the fake photo of an attacker seated inside her apartment. Court records show she pleaded no contest on Monday for falsely reporting a crime. She was placed on probation and ordered to pay a fine for the misdemeanor offense. Police across the country have called for a stop to the “AI Homeless Man” prank, which is intended to fool people into believing a loved one is in danger. According to the St. Petersburg police report, people “capture a photo of an area of their home, then upload the photo to an AI application … and ask AI to insert a homeless man in a pose of their choosing.” ...read more read less