A Mississippi content creator says he is earning more than $10,000 a month by using artificial intelligence (AI) to help create fictional Facebook posts designed to spark outrage and drive engagement, The New York Post reports.
Kvontay Devon Pringle, 26, operates five Facebook accounts featuring different types of content, according to the outlet. Pringle provided the outlet with screenshots of invoices and accounts indicating his content can generate as much as $17,000 a month, though the earnings have not been independently verified.
One of Pringle’s recent posts featured an AI-generated image of a fictional boy named Kevin alongside a story claiming the child had been sent home from school for wearing a pleated skirt with his uniform.
The post generated 8.2 million views and prompted widespread debate online. But the child and the incident were fabricated. Pringle said it took him about 10 minutes to create and publish the post.
“It’s honestly wild to me that a story about a boy who doesn’t even exist became this massive conversation online,” Pringle told the outlet.
“I think it shows how advanced AI has gotten, and how hard it can be for the average person to tell the difference.”
Pringle said the post generated an estimated $2,800 through Meta, Facebook’s parent company. The outlet said it could not independently verify that figure.
Some websites reported the fictional story as fact, raising concerns about how realistic AI-generated content can be and how easily misinformation can spread online. Pringle later added an AI label to the post.
Pringle, who previously operated a carpet-cleaning business, describes himself as a “comedian and storyteller” rather than a rage-bait creator. He said he writes the stories himself and uses AI to generate some of the accompanying images.
“I look at AI as another tool for creating content and telling stories,” Pringle said. “Movies aren’t real; reality TV isn’t always as real as it looks, and people tell fictional stories online every day.”Pringle is also teaching his content strategy to others. He hosts nearly 100 students on the online education platform Skool, where he teaches aspiring creators how to produce viral content.
Pringle said his Facebook posts are not created with the intention of deceiving or harming people, though he acknowledged that users may feel misled after discovering the stories are fictional.
His growing
business underscores how AI-generated content and engagement-based monetization are creating new opportunities for creators — while raising questions about transparency and the increasingly difficult task of distinguishing fabricated social media posts from reality.RELATED CONTENT: Meta Announces New Analytics Tools To Help Brands Find Perfect Match