For some time now, many people have been using Artificial Intelligence to create photos of a homeless person in their home and send them to their parents, which sometimes leads them to call the police.
The joke went viral on TikTok and, in addition to causing anxiety among parents, has also worried the police.
After using Al's tools to create photos of a man in their home, the children send them to their parents, jokingly telling them that they have allowed him into the house to go to the bathroom, take a nap, or drink a glass of water.
The children also tell their parents that the man knows them from work or college, after which the parents lose patience and demand that the children throw the homeless man out.
The children film everything and then post their parents' reactions on TikTok, where some of the clips have millions of views.
However, things turn from problematic to potentially dangerous when the prank goes on too long, as the parents call the police.
Calls about home burglaries, especially those involving children, are treated as a high priority by police, so pranks like this use up valuable resources and can actually get the pranksters in trouble.
Round Rock Police Patrol Division Commander Andy McKinney, in the US, said pranks like this could trigger a SWAT response.
The Salem, Massachusetts, Police Department issued a statement saying the inhumane prank dehumanizes the homeless, causes panic, and wastes police resources.
The officers who are called to respond don't actually know that this is a prank and treat the call as a real burglary, creating a potentially dangerous situation. /Telegraph/
