An image of Michigan Senate hopeful Mike Rogers with muscles bulging through his dress shirt while walking in a parade went viral Tuesday across social media, sparking a few snickers, a few cheers and the creation of more memes.
The photo, which was altered using artificial intelligence to make Rogers look buff, was originally captured by Detroit News photographer David Guralnick at a Fourth of July parade in 2024.
Abby Ronson, a former GOP congressional aide who works for a Rogers campaign vendor, shared the image of Rogers with defined biceps and pecs bulging from his shirt, which contained a disclaimer tag that it was “Made with AI.”
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Michigan’s next Senator, @MikeRogersForMI !!! LET’S GET TO WORK ,” Ronson wrote.
The doctored image was widely shared and at times mocked on social media, spurring the creation of other AI-generated images depicting Rogers as the Hulk, as obese and as a curvy woman.
The Rogers “War Room” social media account on X sought to capitalize on the attention the image sparked and created an AI-generated video of Rogers entering an arena under bright lights, leaping into a wrestling ring and ripping open his button-down shirt to reveal an American flag shirt.
The buff, AI-version of Rogers then lifts a gold championship belt over his head: “Sign him, @TripleH,” referring to Paul Michael Levesque, the COO and executive producer for WWE.
Rogers responded: “Put me in coach.”
The original Detroit News image is of Rogers walking in the Fourth of July parade in downtown Milford on July 4, 2024.
Ronson works for the campaign video firm Convergence Media and previously was a staffer for House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, according to Legistorm.
Convergence Media is a vendor for the Rogers campaign. The Alexandria, Va.-based firm has charged Rogers’ campaign more than $619,000 this election cycle for media consulting, production and ad placement services, according to Federal Election Commission records.
“She’s not a staffer,” Rogers campaign spokeswoman Alyssa Brouillet said. “Mike doesn’t need AI to frame-mog his opponents.”
She pointed to a photo on social media from last week, when Rogers met one of his shorter Democratic opponents, Abdul El-Sayed of Ann Arbor, at the Mackinac Policy Conference on the big porch of the Grand Hotel.
Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent from White Lake Township, is the lone Republican on the ballot for U.S. Senate this year. One of his potential Democratic rivals joined in the online mocking of the AI image on Tuesday.
“This is gender affirming care,” state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, wrote on X, referring to medical and mental health care for transgender individuals.
El-Sayed’s campaign suggested the creator had asked AI to make Rogers look more like El-Sayed, who often posts videos of himself working out.
Another Democrat, first-term U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City, shared an image of herself walking in a parade dressed as Wonder Woman: “Mike and I both wowed at parades recently.”
clivengood@detroitnews.com
mburke@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: AI-altered image of a buff Mike Rogers goes viral
Reporting by Chad Livengood and Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
