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TikTok has given rise to numerous seemingly innocent trends.
However, police have now issued an urgent warning regarding a specific trend, which authorities claim wastes "valuable resources."


The trend involves kids and teenagers using artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate a situation where a homeless person has broken into their home.
The youngsters then send these images to their parents, claiming that the stranger won't leave and asking for assistance in handling the situation.
While many may see it as harmless fun, police have been compelled to issue a warning regarding this peculiar prank.
In a Facebook post, Poole Police explained that they received a 999 call from a worried parent, prompting officers to respond with urgency.
"We all enjoy a good laugh, and sometimes this can stem from an innocent prank," Poole Police stated in the post .
"However, the 'AI Homeless Man Prank' is not the right choice... especially for police."
The authorities continued, "The 'AI Homeless Man Prank' is a social media trend, particularly on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., where individuals use AI-generated images to create the illusion that a homeless man has entered their home.
"They send these images to parents or friends with a message suggesting that a stranger is in the house or refuses to leave. The prank aims to provoke surprise, alarm, or comedic reactions.
"Just last week, we received a 999 call from a highly concerned parent who genuinely believed a homeless man had entered their home while their daughter was the only one present – this turned out to be the aforementioned prank.
"Not only did this misuse valuable deployable resources that could have responded to a real emergency, but it was also classified as a blue light response."
To create the fake images, users take photos of rooms in their homes and then ask AI image generators, such as DALL-E and Gemini AI, to insert a homeless person into the photo.
They then send the fabricated images to their parents and post screen recordings of the interactions on social media.
"There is a man at the door; he says he knows you?" one user texted their dad, along with an AI image of a homeless man standing by the entrance.
What are the arguments against AI?
Artificial intelligence is a highly debated topic, and it seems everyone has an opinion on it. Here are some common arguments against it:
Job Loss – Some industry experts argue that AI will create new niches in the job market, and while some roles may be eliminated, others will emerge. However, many artists and writers insist this argument is unethical, as generative AI tools are trained on their work and would not function otherwise.
Ethics – When AI is trained on a dataset, much of the content is taken from the internet, often without notifying the individuals whose work is being used.
Privacy – Content from personal social media accounts may be used to train language models. Concerns have arisen as Meta unveils its AI assistants across platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Legal challenges have emerged: in 2016, legislation was enacted to protect personal data in the EU, with similar laws being developed in the United States.
Misinformation – As AI tools pull information from the internet, they may take things out of context or suffer from hallucinations that lead to nonsensical answers. Tools like Copilot on Bing and Google’s generative AI in search are always at risk of errors. Critics argue that this could have severe consequences, such as AI providing incorrect health information.
A follow-up photo showed the fabricated person sitting on the sofa, with the prankster writing: "He says he's not leaving."
In response, the user's father urged them to "call the police," fearing that the AI-generated homeless man was "a robber."
Another TikToker distressed their mother by sending photos of a homeless man sleeping in her bed, prompting the worried parent to send several voice notes to the prankster.
Beyond the UK, this prank has also gone viral globally, with police labeling it "foolish and potentially dangerous."
"Besides being in poor taste, there are numerous reasons why this prank is, to be blunt, foolish and potentially harmful," the City of Salem Police Department stated .
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