Unmasking Venezuela Victory Videos and AI Images of Nicolás Maduro.
AI-generated pictures purporting to portray Nicolás Maduro detained after his apprehension by the American authorities have gained many millions of views online.
How Fake Pictures of the President Appeared Rapidly
The first fabricated synthetic picture apparently displaying him taken off a plane circulated within hours. The picture was unpublished by any authoritative US channels; rather, it was published on the platform X by an account describing itself as an “AI video art enthusiast”.
Our analysis used an AI-watermark detector, which found the picture was generated or edited with AI tools.
Further AI-generated visuals were disseminated in the ensuing hours, seemingly depicting different views of Maduro in custody. Discernible logos on these pictures reveal they were posted by an Instagram account called ultravfx.
SynthID indicates all of these images were similarly produced using generative models.
Real Photo Released but Fabrications Continued
Donald Trump shared the first real photo of Nicolás Maduro restrained aboard the USS Iwo Jima on that morning. But even after this real photo was made public, synthetic pictures kept circulating but were modified to show the grey athletic wear worn by Maduro.
Reverse image searches reveal these altered fabrications were initially shared on the video platform by a digital art account. Again, the AI-watermark detector says the new graphics were generated or edited Google AI.
Key Points:
- Synthetic media circulated quickly following the announcement of Maduro's capture.
- The initial fabricated picture appeared very quickly on platform X.
- Detection software like AI-watermark detectors helped to verify the images as synthetic.
- Fake images continued to circulate and evolve even after the release of real photographs.
- The origin of several fabricated images was linked to specific online accounts dedicated to AI art.
