AI rage-baiter, making $10K+ a month duping millions unmasked: I think of things that will emotionally pull on people

Last week, a young boy called Kevin went viral on Facebook.According to his distraught mother, he’d been sent home by his school for his “inappropriate” attire.In this case, that meant wearing a pleated skirt alongside his school uniform polo and high knee socks.The internet freaked out.

The post garnered 8.2 million views, along with a chain reaction of videos and comments, all hotly debating whether kids should be able to wear the clothes they want to school, regardless of gender norms.There was just one problem: The boy in the skirt was fake.“Kevin” had been AI-generated by Kvontay Devon Pringle, a 26-year-old Mississippi digital creator and semi-professional “rage bait” fiend who does, indeed, share a last name with the beloved potato chip.Pringle admitted that the viral vignette took just 10 minutes to make and post on his (ironically faceless) Facebook profile, which he keeps under the alias Zaya Velour.“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 Post exclusively.

“I think it shows how advanced AI has gotten, and how hard it can be for the average person to tell the difference.”His fake post is making real money from Facebook’s parent company, Meta: An estimated $2,800 and counting, according to reports from Pringle himself.(The Post could not independently verify this number.)Pringle represents a new class of online “rage bait” creators who invent false scenarios for attention, and often, for major cash.He runs five separate Facebook accounts, each with its own distinct flavor of content, which can make up to $17,000 per month, according to screenshots of invoices and accounts sent by Pringle to The Post.Though Pringle claims to make all the written components himself, he often uses AI to generate photos for an additional (and often, very convincing) visual element.Pringle calls himself a professional “comedian and storyteller” rathe...