City of Spokane Reportedly Distributed Purported AI-Generated Clocktower Flyer Resembling Graphic Designer Matthew Clinard's Artwork

A Spokane Parks and Recreation employee reportedly used a purported generative AI image tool to create a flyer promoting the restored Great Northern Clocktower chimes. The flyer reportedly reproduced elements of artist Matthew Clinard's commercially sold Clocktower sticker and was distributed by the mayor's office without the city-required AI disclosure. After Clinard complained publicly, the city removed the image and apologized, then began considering AI-policy and employee-training reforms.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 6 Socioeconomic & Environmental
• Primary risk subdomain: 6.3 Economic and cultural devaluation of human effort

The AI-generated clocktower flyer directly copied and devalued the unique style and design of local artist Clinard, impacting his livelihood as a working artist.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The Spokane Police Department inadvertently distributed a fabricated, AI-generated photo of an officer and a rescued dog to the public and media.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Unintentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incidents were caused by human errors in using and distributing AI-generated images without proper verification or disclosure, with no intent to deceive or plagiarize.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3. Limited Risk: AI-generated content such as deepfakes. The report describes the use of AI to generate images that were passed off as real, highlighting the need for transparency and disclosure.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI purpose: Image Generation; Visual Art Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Synthetic media generation technology developers, Synthetic image generation technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unnamed employee of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, Synthetic media creators, Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, Office of Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, City of Spokane
• Alleged harmed parties: Matthew Clinard, General public of Spokane, General public, Epistemic integrity, Copyright holders, artists

Harm severity

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 2
• People reportedly harmed: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 2

Potential causes

Management

• Inadequate Employee Training: Lack of professional development on ethical AI use and identification.
• Weak Policy Enforcement: City policy requiring AI disclosure was not actively enforced or known.
• Poor Risk Assessment: Management failed to assess risks of using AI for public communications.

Technology

• Highly Convincing Image Generation: AI models generate highly realistic images that can easily deceive observers.
• Presence of AI Hallucinations: AI output contained weird artifacts like a flintlock pistol and fake brands.
• Algorithmic Plagiarism: AI model scoured internet and copied artist's style without authorization.

Data Inputs

• Unconsented Training Data: AI model was trained on copyrighted artists' work without their permission.
• Vague Prompting Inputs: Employee input vague prompts ('70s vibe') leading to unintended plagiarism.

Human Factors

• Lack of Critical Examination: Personnel failed to notice obvious AI artifacts in the police photo.
• Blind Trust in Source: Supervisor and PIO trusted the source of the image without verification.
• Lack of Employee Awareness: Parks employee did not realize the tool would plagiarize existing art.

Process and Methods

• Absence of Verification Steps: No check-and-balance procedure existed before sharing images publicly.
• Lack of AI Disclosure: Employee failed to disclose AI use as required by internal city policy.
• Inadequate Image Screening: No formal review process to screen outgoing media for AI generation.

Regulatory Environment

• Lack of Copyright Protection: No strong legal framework to prevent AI models from scraping artists' work.
• Unregulated Generative AI Tools: Lack of federal or local standards governing the deployment of image tools.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report provides clear, detailed, and unconflicting accounts of both the police photo incident and the clocktower flyer incident, including direct quotes from the affected artist and city officials.

A localized incident in Spokane, Washington, where municipal employees unintentionally distributed AI-generated images, including a fake police rescue photo and a plagiarized promotional flyer. The incident highlights local policy compliance and verification gaps but carries negligible national security implications.

• Overall national security impact: Negligible
• Response level: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: United States
• Alleged perpetrator: Spokane Municipal Employees

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The incident is a resolved local administrative matter with no ongoing threat or imminent national security risk.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI systems were used as tools by human municipal employees to generate specific images based on manual prompts.
• Novelty: Established threat. The use of generative AI to create misleading images or copy artistic styles is a well-established and common occurrence.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. The incident involves local municipal administrative errors and minor image generation issues with no physical security or critical infrastructure impact.
• Information security: Negligible. The incident was a localized, unintentional distribution of an AI-generated image by local police and a parks department, not a state-sponsored information warfare campaign.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. While involving municipal government entities, the incident represents minor administrative and policy compliance issues rather than threats to core national sovereignty or state authority.
• Economic security: Negligible. The plagiarism of a local artist's flyer design represents a minor local intellectual property issue with no strategic economic or national technological security implications.
• Societal stability: Negligible. The incident caused minor distress to a local artist and brief public confusion, but had no impact on broader societal stability, civil liberties, or human rights.