Unmasking Venezuelan Victory Videos and AI-Generated Pictures of Maduro.
AI-generated graphics purporting to show Venezuela's president detained after his capture by the US have garnered many millions of impressions on social media.
How Fake Pictures of the President Emerged Rapidly
Initial fake synthetic picture seemingly showing him taken off a aircraft surfaced within hours. The picture was unpublished by any official government accounts; it was instead published on the platform X by an profile purporting to be an “enthusiast of AI-generated art”.
We’ve checked Google’s SynthID, determining the image was generated or edited with Google AI.
More AI-generated images began to spread in the following period, seemingly depicting more angles of Maduro under guard. Noticeable logos on these pictures reveal they came from an Instagram account named ultravfx.
The detection tool confirms all of these pictures were similarly produced using AI technology.
Authentic Image Posted but Fakes Persisted
The former US president shared the first real photo of Nicolás Maduro in handcuffs aboard the US Navy ship on that morning. However, despite this confirmation was released, synthetic images kept circulating but were updated to include the grey athletic wear seen on Maduro.
Online investigation reveal these updated fakes were first posted on TikTok by a digital art account. Once again, SynthID found the new graphics were produced with generative artificial intelligence.
Key Points:
- AI-generated content gained traction after the announcement of the president's apprehension.
- The initial fabricated picture appeared very quickly on platform X.
- Detection software like Google’s SynthID helped to confirm the images as AI-generated.
- Fabrications continued to spread and evolve even after the publication of authentic images.
- The origin of several fabricated images was linked to specific online accounts dedicated to AI art.
