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As you’ve certainly heard by now, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during a speaking engagement in Utah last week.

The 31-year-old conservative pundit was struck in the neck by a bullet and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

In the six days since Kirk’s death, numerous politicians and public figures have paid tribute to his life and work.

And now, new claims about rapper Eminem’s response to the shooting have left social media users deeply confused.

Two rumors about Eminem and Kirk have been circulating nonstop for the past two days:

One claims that Em has recorded and released a tribute song memorializing Kirk.

Did Eminem really release a song in honor of Charlie Kirk?

In the wake of that release, several other tributes “by Eminem” popped up on YouTube and across social media, many of them claiming to feature additional A-list artists, including Rihanna, Ed Sheeran, and Jelly Roll.

To give you an idea of how unconvincing these AI-generated tracks can be, here’s one of the songs that cropped up a few days ago:

Needless to say, that’s not Eminem rapping. It’s not even a human being rapping.

What we have here is a case of opportunistic content creators using AI to exploit a tragedy. And sadly, it’s working.

The video above has received nearly 70,000 views in less than 72 hours.

Other, similarly unconvincing videos, have received hundreds of thousands of views.

Often, the comments are filled with irate users pointing out that the content is obviously fake. But even more viewers seem to be thoroughly convinced.

And that’s not all.

Online rumor claims that Eminem and Kid Rock have launched charity in Kirk’s honor

Another rumor involving Em and Kirk claims that the rapper has partnered with fellow Detroit native Kid Rock to launch a charity honoring Kirk’s memory.

E”minem and Kid Rock shocked the world when they buried their political differences to launch a charity in Charlie Kirk’s name, called ‘Charlie Kirk: From Debate to Great,’” reads a Facebook post about the erroneous claim.

“The foundation will fund and organize debate events at universities across the country–carrying forward the mission Kirk never got to finish.”

Again, that claim is obviously fake for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Eminem and Kid Rock have been at odds for years.

Also, if they were to create a charitable organization, they would probably choose a name that makes sense. “From Debate to Great” sounds like something an AI chatbot would come up with — and that’s almost certainly what it is.

Stories like this serve as a reminder that in the years ahead, we’ll all need to be extra vigilant about vetting our sources in order to avoid being misled by misinformation.

Artificial intelligence will only get more sophisticated from here, and it’s already effectively fooling millions of social media users every day.

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