A police station released an AI-generated image showing Thai officers in elaborate festival-style dresses surrounding a drug dealer caught while undercover. The image was shared on the station’s Facebook page and then appeared in major UK and US tabloids and newspapers, which treated it as genuine because it came from an official source. The arrest itself was real, but the image was not. The real photo shows the five male officers in regular clothes, and the woman dressed as a dancer was not present in the original. The Facebook administrator intended to present a friendlier, humorous image of the police. News outlets later corrected their stories after learning the image was AI-generated, underscoring difficulties in verifying images without direct access to the source.
"It was an arresting image and an irresistible story. A group of tough Thai police officers five men and one woman all wearing elaborate festival-style dresses, surrounding a drug dealer they had caught while undercover. The image, released by local police, was so compelling that it found its way on to the front page of the UK's Daily Star, as well as in picture stories in the Telegraph, the Sun and the New York Post."
"There was just one problem: while the arrest was real, the image was an AI-generated fake. The AI-generated image that was shared on the police station's Facebook page and was used in news publications including in the UK and US on the assumption that, because it had come from an official source, it was a genuine image."
"The real image, which has now been posted on the Facebook page of Tha Luang police station in Thailand, shows the five male police officers in their regular clothes. The woman dressed as a dancer is not in the original at all. The administrator in charge of the station's Facebook account, which released the AI-generated image, had been trying to create a friendlier image for the police, intending to show a cute and humorous side."
"The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Sun and others have now made clear their stories were based on a fake AI image supplied by the police. The absurdity of the image may have rung alarm bells with some readers. However, the fact that the faked image came from a seemingly official source has highlighted the difficulties media outlets face in verifying images."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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