#1
I've seen images from this ceremony posted with captions saying that the people are starving and they're so hungry they're fighting over the fish. Whilst there is some food insecurity in Mali, that's not what's happening in the pictures. It's a festival! The misleading captions annoy me because they're taking something joyous from a traditional African culture and twisting it to fit the 'poor Africa' narrative.
#2
Truth: The lion was ill and just getting a CAT scan at an Israeli zoo.
#3
Potato_Tots:
Also worth noting - the woman in the picture says she does not consider it [harassment] in any way, despite people saying that she should. She was briefly frightened by the suddenness of it, but acknowledges that it was simply an act of spontaneous joy over the war being over and gratitude towards the nurses that had helped the soldiers.
Shameless photo-editing was bad enough. But now we also have to deal with the headache that is gen AI.
With the continued spread of gen AI images and videos, it’s becoming more and more difficult to separate fact from fiction. A few years ago, when the technology was in its infancy, it was pretty easy to spot computer-generated fakes. No object permanence. Extra fingers. The architecture in the background didn’t make sense. That sort of thing. As the tech advances, some people are finding it harder to spot the fakes.
PCMag points out that there are a number of red flags to look out for that imply that what you’re looking at is likely an AI image or video. For one, if there’s a watermark of an AI model present, it’s most definitely AI. (This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t even bother to look for watermarks.)
“You should always search the corners of an image to look for watermarks, as well as look up any you don’t recognize.”
#4
Splatterh0use:
That spells fake all over. That day on Sept 11 it was still summer in NY and hot; that dude is dressed for winter.
SanguisFluens:
There are several things wrong with this photo. First, the observation deck doesn't normally open until 9:30 and both planes had hit by then. Second, the camera would have been destroyed when the building collapsed. Third, the plane is coming from the wrong direction, and fourth, it is the wrong type of plane.
jimmorrison-:
Are we all ignoring the fact that the plane looks glaringly fake?
#5
#6
“It’s entirely possible, if not trivially easy, to remove watermarks from images, but some AI images have additional markers. For instance, Google uses its SynthID tool to add what amounts to an invisible watermark to Gemini images. Even if you can't see a marker on an image, you can still submit it to Gemini and ask it to check for SynthID. Of course, a negative result doesn't rule out the possibility that the image came from a different tool,” PCMag explains.
Meanwhile, you can always do some online digging and image searching. Look for easily identifiable source material, and check if the source itself is trustworthy.
Other signs of AI-generated images and clips include distorted text, overly clean or smooth scenes, generic or out-of-focus backgrounds, low-resolution or compressed files, and various inconsistencies.
On top of that, you have to consider whether the context of what you’re seeing sounds plausible. “If an image doesn’t make sense, there’s a good chance that it’s not real.”
#7
A: That was actually staged.
The source of the rice wave is actually a sculpture made as part of a fake food museum in Tokyo, called the “giga wave”.
#8
#9
The internet just loves animals, especially if they look weird or cute, or both at the same time. So there is no surprise that a photo of a cat with adorable mustache and eyebrows would go viral. Well, there is a silver lining to this story, the cat does in fact have that incredible mustache, but the eyebrows are a result of clever photo manipulation.
After you’ve finished looking through this list of photos, we’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments down below.
Be honest, which of these widely shared internet images fooled you when you first saw them? What are some popular photos or stories that you see get shared online that you know for a fact are pure fiction?
#10
master_of_all_trades:
This audition was likely for Tales of Terror (1962) by Roger Corman
#11
Truth: It is a miniature replica of the Sphinx at the Tobu World Square theme park in Japan.
#12
#13
There’s a photo showcasing how its canals in the winter look like you could easily ice skate on them, don’t they?
A: In fact, no.
The frozen water in this picture actually comes from Lake Baikal in Russia.
#14
Again a real pic but wrong story
It was presented that a lady gave birth to 11 babies but the truth is that 11 babies were born on the same day.
#15
But then someone adjusted the tone and found it was fake!
#16
#17
I have corrected this nonsense so many times on Facebook.
flakAttack510:
That's ice cream.
#18
The story: "A boy left his bike chained to a tree when he went away to war in 1914. He never returned, leaving the tree no choice but to grow around the bike."
Apparent Truth: "Although text is commonly associated with pictures of the tree claiming that the bicycle was left chained to it by a boy who went off to war in 1914, the bike is not nearly that old, nor was it left behind by a young man setting off to take part in World War I. According to the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber, the bicycle was left behind in the mid-1950s by a local resident who simply abandoned it."
#20
