SALEM, Mass. —

Police in Salem, Massachusetts, are warning about a viral prank trending on social media that involves artificial intelligence.

It's called the "AI homeless man prank." Pranksters are using artificial intelligence to create fake images of a stranger inside their homes and then sending the images to family members as a prank.

"You're causing your friends or your family to panic, to think you're in danger. No. 2, you're tying up a police, public safety answering point, a 911 dispatch center. You're wasting the police resources," Salem Police Department Capt. John Burke said.

In some cases, those who received these AI-generated images and commentary sincerely believed that there was an actual intruder in their home and called 911 to report a burglary or breaking and enterin

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