Debunking Venezuelan Victory Footage and AI Images of Nicolás Maduro.
Synthetic graphics claiming to depict Venezuela's president in custody following his apprehension by the American authorities have gained many millions of impressions across the internet.
How Fake Pictures of the President Emerged Soon After
Initial inauthentic synthetic picture seemingly displaying him led off a plane circulated within hours. This image was unpublished by any authoritative government accounts; rather, it was uploaded on the platform X by an account purporting to be an “enthusiast of AI-generated art”.
We’ve checked Google’s SynthID, determining the picture was generated or edited with generative AI.
Additional AI-generated images began to spread in the subsequent period, appearing to show additional perspectives of Maduro under guard. Discernible watermarks on these pictures show they came from an Instagram profile called ultravfx.
The detection tool confirms these additional pictures were similarly generated or edited Google AI.
Real Photo Released but Fakes Persisted
The former US president shared the first real photo of Nicolás Maduro restrained aboard the USS Iwo Jima on that morning. However, despite this real photo was made public, synthetic pictures continued to spread but were altered to show the grey athletic wear worn by Maduro.
Online investigation show the new fake images were first posted on TikTok by a graphic design account. Once again, the AI-watermark detector says the new graphics were generated or edited Google AI.
Important Facts:
- Synthetic media spread rapidly after the news of Maduro's capture.
- The initial fabricated image was shared very quickly on social media.
- Detection software like Google’s SynthID were used to verify the pictures as synthetic.
- Fake images persisted to circulate and evolve even after the release of real images.
- The origin of several fabricated images was linked to social media profiles dedicated to AI art.
