Poisoning Reality

Poisoning Reality examines how easily reality can be distorted when AI systems learn from data that anyone can manipulate.

With Poisoning Reality we’ve crafted a new visual identity for the rarely documented moth Neopalpa donaldtrumpi by adding Trump-like hair to another butterfly species and spreading images of them online. These images are placed on platforms likely to be scraped for AI training data, a technique known in research as 'data poisoning'. Since 2024, we’ve watched as public AI models gradually reproduce our fabricated version of the insect.

At our exhibitions, visitors can participate by sharing photos and videos of the exhibited moth online. Through this collective act of digital disobedience, the artwork shifts power dynamics and offers a sense of democratic agency in an opaque and seemingly uncontrollable information landscape.

See our documentation for more information about our data poisoning effort.

Result of GenAI image creation with the prompt "create image of neopalpa donaldtrumpi" with ChatGPT on 17.02.2026.