Fact checkers reveal the most popular fake images on the internet

Fact-checkers from the British organization Full Fact drew the attention of Internet users to images that were widely circulated online this year and received tens of thousands of likes. But in fact, all of them are not genuine, but were made using artificial intelligence programs such as Midjourney and DALL-E. As the researchers note, such crafts spread misinformation, easily misleading people and undermining their trust in information online. This is reported by Sky News.

Fact checkers from Full Fact have selected eight of the most obvious examples of fake images. Among them – photo, allegedly taken at the coronation ceremony of Charles III and showing Prince William tearfully hugging his brother Prince Harry. Nothing like this has ever happened in life, and the photo, according to its author, was taken with the help of Midjourney.

Moreover, it was enough for the program to simply have a short verbal description to create this very plausible image.

The photo went viral on Facebook (the social network belongs to Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), where it was tagged more than 78 thousand times.

This was done in the same way using Midjourney image a very sick looking Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison. The photo also went viral on Facebook and was shared more than 29 thousand times before its author admitted to the fake. The fake one was very popular photo Donald Trump is under arrest. It came out in August, when the former president was formally arrested in a Georgia prison on charges of interfering in the 2020 election. At the same time, Mr. Trump released an official photo under arrest, however, the fake photo was also perceived by users as genuine.

A photo of a smiling Emmanuel Macron against the backdrop of a pile of burning garbage, allegedly taken during street riots in France, collected tens of thousands of views, it was repeatedly marked as liked, and users were outraged that the official media was hushing up this situation.

The Full Fact selection also includes photo Pope in front of thousands of believers in Lisbon, fake image with a performance of Elon Musk allegedly kissing a female robot, image supposedly the wreckage of the sunken bathyscaphe “Titan” and edited image British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a pint of beer.

Full Fact experts called on the British government to pay more attention to educating users so that they do not become victims of deception. According to the head of the organization, Chris Morris, the lack of action on the part of the authorities undermines people’s trust in what they see online, and this threatens to undermine democracy in the country.

Alena Miklashevskaya