What We Can Learn From AI Slop Images Celebrating Pentagon Worship Services
I first noticed something odd after reporting on Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself “secretary of war,” reading Psalm 144 during the Pentagon worship service in January to justify the U.S. military operation in Venezuela. My later reports on Pentagon services that broke the news of Doug Wilson preaching or Hegseth offering a prayer with a Mad Libs mashup of biblical violence or Hegseth delivering a prayer largely lifted from a Pulp Fiction monologue each sparked coverage by other media outlets. But Hegseth reading the violent psalm during the January service was basically ignored, except by a few social media accounts dedicated to providing “inspirational” Christian content.
These accounts highlighted Hegseth reading a psalm, apparently since they believed it fit the narratives of the United States as a “Christian” nation and the Trump administration as “godly.” The first couple of accounts actually linked to my report since I was the only one who had documented this. But as it spread to other accounts, the sourcing got dropped. Instead, we were just left with what was supposed to be an uplifting social media graphic. But there was something else unexpected about many of these posts. With a few exceptions, they did not feature an image from the actual service (like the screenshots and video in my report) but an AI-generated image.
While the image on the left is actually from the January 2026 service, the other two are clearly conjured up by AI. The middle one is a passable recreation of Hegseth, though it’s not in the correct room. The image on the right is not only the wrong room with the wrong people but it’s also a horrible attempt at Hegseth and his wife Jennifer. Ironically, that version is from the same content “creator” as the middle one, showing he’s not even consistent with his depictions of the same service.
This type of content has continued as I’ve reported each month on the Pentagon services. Not only do these images have that usual look of AI slop, but they also continue to get things wrong. The room for the services changes and is clearly not the auditorium where the services (other than the Christmas one) have been held. Hegseth changes a bit in the images, though he’s one of the few people the AI models usually get fairly close. Beyond him, we’re given fake pastors and various inaccurate depictions of Hegseth’s wife (unless the AI models are suggesting Hegseth is bringing other women to the services).
These supposedly “inspirational” Christian messages glorifying the Pentagon services with AI images are not just weird (though they very much are that). They also provide a window into a disturbing social media trend that is impacting how many people view faith and public life as the algorithms of Facebook and other platforms serve up these fake images that lift up a distorted view of Christianity. So this issue of A Public Witness dives into the weird world of AI-generated social media content that seeks to disciple people in the way of Pentagon worship services.
AI Love To Tell The Story
The AI slop posts about the Pentagon services aren’t just fringe accounts. These are coming from content “creators” who have large followings and get lots of interactions on their posts. As I’ve paid attention to the posts, I’ve noticed a few trends.
