People are swooning over an Army woman named Jessica Foster who was spotted posing with an F-22 Raptor, wearing camouflage in desert areas, and even appearing with Donald Trump. People are infatuated with the woman, but the reality is something different. Experts said there was no public record of Foster’s military service and despite not being labeled an AI, the account had several indicators that she was fake. Among her many pro-Trump posts, Foster also prominently displayed her legs, the Washington Post reports.Foster’s viral rise highlighted what researchers have described as a growing strategy to attract attention online, in which right-wing accounts blend patriotism and soft-core pornography by using fake women and convincing imagery to attract audiences, monetize interest, and score political points.Accounts depicting AI-generated women posing as Trump-supporting soldiers, truck drivers and police officers built large audiences on TikTok, Instagram and X, where thousands of commenters posted reactions suggesting they believed the women were real.A similar pattern has emerged outside the United States in recent weeks, with hundreds of AI-generated videos featuring Iranian female soldiers and pilots being broadcast to the country’s military online, as first reported by the BBC. One indication that they were fake was that Iran bans women from combat roles.Sam Gregory, executive director of Witness, a video-advocacy group that researches deepfakes, said Foster exemplified how deceptive AI video generators can be. He said advances in AI have made it easier to create fake characters consistently across multiple photos or videos and place the character next to real public figures, making it appear as if the character was at the center of real events.By implementing political posturing and current events into the simulated lives of these characters, their creators likely hoped to maximize virality and stand out online, Gregory said. He said that once creators got their attention, they could, in Foster’s case, direct users to a paid platform where they were asked to pay for more explicit scenes.Foster, he said, “embodies MAGA fantasies, all packaged into one channel, but it’s clearly AI: The images have no provenance, no history around them, visible glitches.” “There are many real and unrealistic beautiful women online, but around the big events of the day, being very close to power, there is a different perception.”The person who runs the Foster account did not respond to requests for comment. After The Washington Post sought comment, the account posted a new photo on Wednesday that shows Foster traveling on a military ship in the Strait of Hormuz.An Army spokesman said authorities found no record of Foster. The White House and Meta, which owns Instagram, did not respond to requests for comment.Foster’s first video, posted on Thanksgiving, showed a blue-eyed woman in a tight shirt sitting under an American flag and included a caption soliciting comments from every “straight guy who likes a US Army girl.”In this AI-generated image, the fictional Foster is seen with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AI-generated image obtained by Washington Post)In this AI-generated photo, Foster is seen with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (AI-generated image obtained by Washington Post)More than 50 photos and videos followed in the months that followed, showing meetings with First Lady Melania Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin and soccer star Lionel Messi. In between those moments, Foster made crude jokes, gave speeches and joined her female castmates for pillow fights.A video last month accompanied by the caption, “Best job in the world,” showed Foster in a helmet and tactical vest.The posts were described as strange, and details in the imagery provided clues, including insignia on her combat and service uniforms, which suggested a jumbled mix of qualifications, indicating she was either a staff sergeant, a Ranger School graduate, or a one-star general.In one photo, he was shown giving a speech at the “Borders of Peace Conference”, which was described as a scaled-down version of Trump’s new peace board. In another, he was shown holding former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro captive, and his uniform listed his first name where his last name should be.Thousands of users are still posting in her comments section. Referring to Foster, Silicon Valley investor Justin Moore of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz said in an X post, “I’m really impressed by how many people are following influencers who are clearly AI.”Foster’s post received more than 100,000 comments, many of which were from accounts that had men in their profile photos. Some users called her an AI, while many celebrated her looks, sent her heart-eyes emojis or cheered her on.The Brazilian transport official’s verified Instagram account liked most of her photos and told Foster that she was “Linda”, or beautiful. Another user asked, “Why do you never reply?” The accounts did not respond to requests for comment.Foster’s Instagram, which included galleries titled “Training,” “US,” and “DailyArmy,” was originally linked to an account on OnlyFans, a subscription marketplace popular among porn creators. An OnlyFans spokesperson said the account was removed for breaking rules requiring all creators to be verified human adults.In this AI-generated image, Foster is seen with two other fake soldiers in Greenland. (AI-generated image obtained by Washington Post)Foster later linked viewers to an account on FanView, a smaller OnlyFans competitor that allows AI models and labels them as “generated or enhanced”.Her account there, “JessicaNextDoor”, listed its location as Fort Bragg, a military base in North Carolina, home to the Army Special Operations Command, and described Foster as “public servant by day, troublemaker by night.”The report describes this approach as a sales-funnel technique used by influencers to convert free viewers into paying customers for more explicit content. Fanview declined to share information about the account, which invited viewers to subscribe for “exclusive content”.“Well I reply to every message but be patient as I’m not a robot,” the account said with a winking emoji. Within days of its creation, the account received over 10,000 likes.The report said online fraud does not require AI. It cites cases where real women were photographed and used to distribute political messages they did not support, including a 2023 case in which a Trump supporter was featured on a left-wing “anger bait” account, and a 2024 case in which European influencers were posed as MAGA supporters.Joan Donovan, an assistant professor at Boston University who studies media manipulation, said AI helped such accounts proliferate because they were easy to create, endlessly customizable and provided a clear path to making money. He said the political gloss also helped ensure the photos appeared in people’s news feeds.Donovan said the biggest risk is that the strategy could be transformed into an information war, in which anonymously run accounts could be deployed as “bot armies” to distribute mass propaganda, disinformation or wartime conversations.“The danger is that we’re moving toward an unrealistic society,” Donovan said. “It’s a way to deliver a political message, and it’s effective. We don’t even know if selling pictures of feet is the ultimate form of Jessica Foster.”
