Thousands of Dubliners were fooled into a phantom Halloween parade by an AI-created website called My Spirit Halloween. A flyer on O’Connell Street proclaimed the event, apparently organized by the prominent, estimable Irish performance group, Macnas, invited costumed revelers in the streets only to realize it all had not been known in the first place. The Irish police, the gardaí, had to intervene to break up the disappointed crowd.
This parade was to take place on October 31, 2024, at 7 p.m. and was hosted by Macnas, which is a legitimate Irish performance group that puts on phenomenal Halloween events annually. The fictitious event details came from a site called My Spirit Halloween, allegedly based in Illinois, USA.
More probes into the site showed that it was hosted in Pakistan and was up to something with unclear allegiances. The website had stories generated from AI, using smart SEO to send its news through social media, such as TikTok and Facebook, to entice both Dubliners and tourists into curiosity. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, My Spirit Halloween publicized the event with a slew of AI-generated articles, fake reviews, and even photos of previous Macnas parades to appear like a legitimate promotion. On its event page, the website even included what seemed like obviously credible endorsements and reviews of the “event” by “attendees” who extolled virtues for a can’t-miss spectacle.
With this digital facade and a little bit of SEO magic, this page would rise high in Google search engine results, convincing many of its existence. It went viral on social media because posts on TikTok and Facebook sounded so excited it somehow enticed more people to come for this parade. By the evening of October 31st, a crowd of thousands showed up on O’Connell Street; many that were arriving in full, elaborate costume were awaiting the fictional procession to come through. The giant gathering quickly became an issue of public order as it overflowed into public transport networks and briefly disrupted Dublin’s Luas tram system on both the Red and Green lines.
Accumulations of this sort, an unusually big crowd, finally saw Gardaí act to avert accidents and began informing them through social media messages: “Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin City Centre this evening or tonight.”
This was variously received with confusion, disappointment, and humour by those present-many of whom dispersed piecemeal when the reality became evident that there was no parade.
Mixed reactions set in among the public. While some saw it as a harmless Halloween fiasco, others were more concerned about how misinformation had spread so fast. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver took to social media to sling in his two cents on the incident and point out the dangers AI-based misinformation poses. “This is a classic example of what unchecked AI content can do,” Oliver tweeted, warning of the heightened influence fake online content is increasingly having on the actions of the public.
Technology and social media experts said that incidents like these show how AI-created information, if left unchecked, could be manipulated to do harm. In this case, the My Spirit Halloween website may not have intended harm, but the way it lured crowds in based on fake news demonstrated the power-and potential danger-of automated hoaxes.
