ASHEVILLE - An image of a funnel cloud near the Buncombe-Madison county line was shared widely online on the evening of June 28, amid a severe storm that struck Western North Carolina.
It wasn't real.
While the image fooled many, including professional meteorologists, it was generated with artificial intelligence and never meant to be shared publicly, according to its creator.
Zeke Seaton, 29, of Burnsville told the Citizen Times July 29 that he created the image using ChatGPT after a tornado warning and shared it with friends on Snapchat, paired with a meme related to the show "Family Guy."
"We had just got the (tornado warning) alert on our phones, and as soon as we got the alert on our phones, I thought of a funny meme, and then posted the meme,"
along with the AI-generated image, Seaton said.A longtime friend screenshotted the image of the funnel cloud and shared it on Facebook. From there, it went viral. Seaton said that the television station WLOS reached out to him about the image. The National Weather Service also posted it on social media. In a phone call with the Citizen Times July 29, Meteorologist Christiaan Patterson declined to comment on the photo.
"Our main mission is to protect lives and property," she said.
Seaton said that he realized the photo went viral after he started getting messages about it.
"I was devastated, because it was never meant to go to the public. It was supposed to be just me and friends," Seaton said.
Seaton said that people upset about the image have reached out to him, and he said he understands why they feel that way. One person posted in the Asheville subreddit that the viral photo, combined with the tornado warning, caused them to shelter in place.
Seaton said that was not his intent.
"I apologize. It was never meant to go public. It looks very terrible if you just look at that one photo," he said. "Overall, it was just humor that was supposed to be between me and my friends. We're all like-minded. It was never meant to go public on any platforms."
Kara Fohner is the Public Safety Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email her at kfohner@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: AI image of funnel cloud in Western NC went viral, was never meant to be public
