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Did a Time Traveling Superintelligent AI Try to Warn About White House Correspondents Dinner Shooting? (404 Media)
Every time you think RW conspiracy theorists can't get any crazier...
Exploring the origins of an incredibly dumb, Magic Eye-themed WHCD conspiracy theory.
— 404 Media (@404media.co) 2026-04-27T19:15:03.203Z
https://www.404media.co/did-a-time-traveling-superintelligent-ai-try-to-warn-about-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-an-investigation/
Did a Time Traveling Superintelligent AI Try to Warn About White House Correspondents Dinner Shooting? An Investigation
Jason Koebler
Apr 27, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Tweets containing an abstract, psychedelic 3D stock image have million and millions of views on X because it is supposedly the key to a superintelligent, time-traveling AI conspiracy that attempted to warn people about the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
I’m gonna try to explain the mind-numbing conspiracy theory that has taken over my timeline over the last few hours. A few hours after a gunman was taken into custody Saturday night, X users found an account called “Henry Martinez” that has posted exactly one tweet, on December 21, 2023. The tweet says “Cole Allen,” which is the name of the suspected shooter. The Henry Martinez account has a Pepe the frog holding a wine glass avatar, and, crucially, has the following 3D art as its header image:
-snip-
This image is key to an unhinged conspiracy theory that has gone viral on various platforms that suggests the Twitter account was run by a time-traveling artificial intelligence that was likely trying to warn us about the shooting and, possibly, the previous assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
-snip-
This X post more or less sums up what the conspiracy is, most notably the idea that “the background photo is from a website called ‘Time Machine.’” The conspiracy believers argue that this 3D image is itself a coded magic eye message that is actually a version of one of the iconic images of Trump pumping his first after a bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania. Here are the images side-by-side, with people arguing that it “looks like” the Butler image.
-snip-
Jason Koebler
Apr 27, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Tweets containing an abstract, psychedelic 3D stock image have million and millions of views on X because it is supposedly the key to a superintelligent, time-traveling AI conspiracy that attempted to warn people about the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
I’m gonna try to explain the mind-numbing conspiracy theory that has taken over my timeline over the last few hours. A few hours after a gunman was taken into custody Saturday night, X users found an account called “Henry Martinez” that has posted exactly one tweet, on December 21, 2023. The tweet says “Cole Allen,” which is the name of the suspected shooter. The Henry Martinez account has a Pepe the frog holding a wine glass avatar, and, crucially, has the following 3D art as its header image:
-snip-
This image is key to an unhinged conspiracy theory that has gone viral on various platforms that suggests the Twitter account was run by a time-traveling artificial intelligence that was likely trying to warn us about the shooting and, possibly, the previous assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
-snip-
This X post more or less sums up what the conspiracy is, most notably the idea that “the background photo is from a website called ‘Time Machine.’” The conspiracy believers argue that this 3D image is itself a coded magic eye message that is actually a version of one of the iconic images of Trump pumping his first after a bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania. Here are the images side-by-side, with people arguing that it “looks like” the Butler image.
-snip-
The last paragraph above links to that X post
https:// x.c om/ GregIsKitty /status/2048368943971082263
GregisKitty
@GregIsKitty
Latest conspiracy theory is out…
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting yesterday is linked to time travel?
1. An X account user ‘HenryMa79561893’ with only 1 post from 2023:
“Cole Allen” - the name of yesterday’s shooter.
2. The background photo is from a website called ‘Time Machine’
3. The account username ‘HenryMa79561893’ has a string of numbers.
Each number converted to a letter is an anagram of “Chief AGI.”
Chief Artificial General Intelligence. Did AI lead to time travel?
Starting to think the dead/missing scientists are linked to time travel.
@GregIsKitty
Latest conspiracy theory is out…
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting yesterday is linked to time travel?
1. An X account user ‘HenryMa79561893’ with only 1 post from 2023:
“Cole Allen” - the name of yesterday’s shooter.
2. The background photo is from a website called ‘Time Machine’
3. The account username ‘HenryMa79561893’ has a string of numbers.
Each number converted to a letter is an anagram of “Chief AGI.”
Chief Artificial General Intelligence. Did AI lead to time travel?
Starting to think the dead/missing scientists are linked to time travel.
More including thorough debunking at the 404 Media link.
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Even if we make the assumption that the timestamp MUST be accurate (has anyone shown a copy of that post FROM 2023?), another possibility is that someone named Cole Allen posted it, perhaps as a test post. It's not THAT uncommon of a name.
In any case, it's almost surely a purposeful distraction meant to cater to the wingnut brigade that'll believe in ANY conspiracy theory, no matter how insane it is. This is to give them something to ponder apart from rather glaringly strange set of circumstances that perfectly set up Trump to lobby for his ballroom. This is basically "SQUIRREL" for the MAGA brigade. Decent chance Russia and/or Musk are behind it.
The Hallucinating ChatGPT Presidency
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220281483
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgpt-presidency/
Judge for yourself.
Tue, Apr 29th 2025 09:34am - Mike Masnick
And seriously, space aliens have been trying to kidnap him for a long time to learn his secrets
And favorite recipe for roast pig.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220281483
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgpt-presidency/
Judge for yourself.
Tue, Apr 29th 2025 09:34am - Mike Masnick
We generally understand how LLM hallucinations work. An AI model tries to generate what seems like a plausible response to whatever you ask it, drawing on its training data to construct something that sounds right. The actual truth of the response is, at best, a secondary consideration.
snip
But over the last few months, it has occurred to me that, for all the hype about generative AI systems “hallucinating,” we pay much less attention to the fact that the current President does the same thing, nearly every day. The more you look at the way Donald Trump spews utter nonsense answers to questions, the more you begin to recognize a clear pattern — he answers questions in a manner quite similar to early versions of ChatGPT. The facts don’t matter, the language choices are a mess, but they are all designed to present a plausible-sounding answer to the question, based on no actual knowledge, nor any concern for whether or not the underlying facts are accurate.
snip
This is not the response of someone working from actual knowledge or policy understanding. Instead, it’s precisely how an LLM operates: taking a prompt (the question about job losses) and generating text based on some core parameters (the “system prompt” that requires deflecting blame and asserting greatness).
The hallmarks of AI generation are all here:
• Confident assertions without factual backing
• Meandering diversions that maintain loose semantic connection to the topic
• Pattern-matching to previous responses (“ripped off,” “billions of dollars”)
• Optimization for what sounds good rather than what’s true
snip
But over the last few months, it has occurred to me that, for all the hype about generative AI systems “hallucinating,” we pay much less attention to the fact that the current President does the same thing, nearly every day. The more you look at the way Donald Trump spews utter nonsense answers to questions, the more you begin to recognize a clear pattern — he answers questions in a manner quite similar to early versions of ChatGPT. The facts don’t matter, the language choices are a mess, but they are all designed to present a plausible-sounding answer to the question, based on no actual knowledge, nor any concern for whether or not the underlying facts are accurate.
snip
This is not the response of someone working from actual knowledge or policy understanding. Instead, it’s precisely how an LLM operates: taking a prompt (the question about job losses) and generating text based on some core parameters (the “system prompt” that requires deflecting blame and asserting greatness).
The hallmarks of AI generation are all here:
• Confident assertions without factual backing
• Meandering diversions that maintain loose semantic connection to the topic
• Pattern-matching to previous responses (“ripped off,” “billions of dollars”)
• Optimization for what sounds good rather than what’s true
And seriously, space aliens have been trying to kidnap him for a long time to learn his secrets
And favorite recipe for roast pig.
