Exposing Venezuelan Celebration Videos and AI-Generated Pictures of Maduro.
Synthetic graphics claiming to depict Venezuela's president detained following his apprehension by the US have gained countless of impressions on social media.
The Way AI Images of the President Surfaced Soon After
The first fake synthetic picture seemingly displaying him being escorted off a plane surfaced within hours. The picture was unpublished by any authoritative American sources; it was instead uploaded on X by an profile describing itself as an “AI video art enthusiast”.
We’ve checked an AI-watermark detector, which found the picture was generated or edited with generative AI.
Further synthetic visuals started circulating in the ensuing hours, purporting to present additional perspectives of Maduro in custody. Discernible watermarks on these pictures reveal they originated from an Instagram profile called ultravfx.
The detection tool says these additional pictures were also generated or edited Google AI.
Real Photo Released but Fakes Persisted
Donald Trump shared the genuine photograph of Nicolás Maduro handcuffed aboard the US Navy ship on that morning. However, despite this confirmation was made public, AI-generated pictures kept circulating but were modified to include the gray sweatsuit worn by Maduro.
Reverse image searches show the new fake images were first posted on TikTok by a graphic design account. Once again, analysis confirms these further images were generated or edited Google AI.
Key Points:
- AI-generated content gained traction after the news of the president's apprehension.
- The initial fabricated picture appeared on the same day on social media.
- Tools like AI-watermark detectors were used to identify the images as inauthentic.
- Fabrications persisted to circulate and evolve despite the release of authentic images.
- The source of several fabricated images was traced to social media accounts dedicated to graphic design.