Exposing Venezuela Victory Videos and AI Images of Nicolás Maduro.
AI-generated pictures claiming to show Nicolás Maduro under arrest following his apprehension by the American authorities have amassed tens of millions of views across the internet.
The Way Fake Pictures of Maduro Surfaced Soon After
The first fake synthetic picture apparently showing him being escorted off a aircraft emerged a brief time later. The graphic was unpublished by any authoritative government accounts; rather, it was published on the platform X by an account purporting to be an “AI video art enthusiast”.
We’ve checked the SynthID tool, determining the image was created or altered with Google AI.
Additional AI-generated pictures began to spread in the following period, purporting to present more angles of the leader detained. Noticeable watermarks on these images reveal they came from an Instagram profile called ultravfx.
The detection tool indicates all of these images were similarly generated or edited Google AI.
Real Photo Posted but Fakes Continued
Donald Trump released the initial authentic image of Nicolás Maduro restrained aboard the US Navy ship on Saturday morning. But even after this confirmation was published, synthetic images persisted online but were modified to incorporate the gray sweatsuit seen on Maduro.
Reverse image searches indicate these updated fakes were first posted on TikTok by a digital art profile. Similarly, SynthID found these subsequent pictures were created or altered Google AI.
Main Takeaways:
- AI-generated content spread rapidly after the events of Maduro's capture.
- The first fake picture appeared on the same day on social media.
- Tools like AI-watermark detectors were used to verify the images as synthetic.
- Fabrications persisted to spread and be updated even after the publication of real images.
- The origin of many fabricated images was traced to specific online accounts focused on AI art.
