Did a Time Traveling Superintelligent AI Try to Warn About White House Correspondents Dinner Shooting? An Investigation

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. 

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. 

The image was created by a photographer who goes by Distinct Mind who has a pretty extensive website, Instagram, and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@distinct_mind/videos?ref=404media.co) of photography, digital art, and travel content. Distinct Mind did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media.

Distinct Mind’s image has been used across the internet to illustrate various blog posts about [psychedelics](https://www.wholepersonintegration.com/blog/2023/11/21/psychedelics-must-be-approached-with-caution?ref=404media.co) and psychology, including a Medium post by a doctor and CEO who went on a ketamine psychotherapy retreat and wrote about it. It was also used for a while on a sex therapist’s blog, is being sold as a “[psychedelic glitch art poster” on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4334202792/psychedelic-glitch-art-poster?ref=404media.co), was used as part of an [ADHD treatment clinic’s website](https://www.rebeccasteinmindbody.com/adhd-diagnostic?ref=404media.co), was used on a [post about the Bible on a theologian’s blog](https://www.awkwardasiantheologian.com/blog/2022/4/29/even-now?ref=404media.co), and was notably used by a financial firm in an inscrutable blog post called “[Navigating the PHL Variable Liquidation: Why Pricing Integrity Is Everything](https://www.trcfinancial.com/post/navigating-the-phl-variable-liquidation-why-pricing-integrity-is-everything?ref=404media.co).” In other words, it’s a free stock image, and it’s been used for all sorts of shit around the internet, like other free stock images.. 

What conspiracy theorists have glommed onto, however, is that the image was used by a European research organization called “Time Machine” as the illustration on one of its blog posts. What the conspiracy theorists conveniently do not mention is that the Time Machine organization did not make the image and, despite a header on its website called “BUILDING A TIME MACHINE,” the Time Machine organization does not actually have anything to do with time travel research. Time Machine is a European Union-funded organization that, broadly speaking, is trying to digitize and analyze historic documents. Its website actually is somewhat insane in the way that many of these types of projects are; the organization aspires to digitize historic documents and images, use AI to analyze them, and suggests that in the future it will be able to create virtual reality and augmented reality experiences about European history. They also claim [that they want to “simulate” parts of history](https://www.epfl.ch/schools/cdh/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/FINAL_H2024_web_light.pdf?ref=404media.co) using artificial intelligence to create different types of experiences. 

This sort of thing is controversial among historians for all of the reasons that artificial intelligence is controversial more broadly.

Read now: [https://www.404media.co/did-a-time-traveling-superintelligent-ai-try-to-warn-about-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-an-investigation/](https://www.404media.co/did-a-time-traveling-superintelligent-ai-try-to-warn-about-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-an-investigation/)

I guess if anyone is gonna time travel, it’s probably ai