September 10th Movement: Generative AI, the new fuel for online social anger

"Hi everyone, does anyone have a good grasp of ChatGPT? I've isolated a small section of a Balavoine song, and I'd like to ask him to paste the lyrics with a voice." The question appeared on Sunday, September 7, in the Telegram channel "Les Essentiels." This was one of the first online spaces to have broadcast, in mid-July, calls for a blockade of France on September 10, against a backdrop, at least initially, of sovereignist and anti-European demands.

In their visual grammar, "Les Essentiels" set the tone from the start: that of a marked use of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney… or applications based on automated creation of images, texts or videos. Content that has been peppering Telegram and YouTube channels, TikTok accounts or Facebook pages for several weeks, and generated by the movement's supporters.

As early as May 21, a TikTok post from "Essentiels" featured a Marianne, apparently generated by AI, crying.

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