Fake Trump arrest photos: How to spot an AI-generated image

Fake Trump arrest photos: How to spot an AI-generated image
Published 3 hours ago
By Kayleen Devlin and Joshua Cheetham
BBC News


Former US President Trump posted this AI-generated image of himself, but a closer look shows he is missing fingers


Fake images created by artificial intelligence (AI) tools depicting Donald Trump have appeared on social media over the past week.

Many falsely showed the arrest of the former president, who may face indictment over payment of hush money to a woman he allegedly had an affair with. He has not yet been charged with a crime.

Many of those sharing the images pointed out they were fake, and they did not appear to fool lots of people - but a few did seem to be tricked.

On Thursday, Mr Trump also shared an AI-generated image on his own social media platform Truth Social. It showed him kneeling in prayer.

What are some of the tell-tale signs of AI-generated imagery? And how can you distinguish a real from a fake?

Does something look 'off'?


This image looks realistic, but take a closer look at Trump's right arm and neck


The images circulating online, like the one above, look hyper-real - more like staged artistic shots than in-the-moment photographs.

A closer look shows some obvious giveaways that something isn't quite right.

Look at the centre of the image. Mr Trump's arm is much too short, and the police officer on the left is grabbing something that more resembles a claw than a human hand.

Similarly, if you focus on Mr Trump's neck, you'll notice that his head looks as if it's been superimposed on the image.

Henry Ajder, an AI expert and presenter of the BBC radio series The Future Will be Synthesised, says current technology is not very good at depicting certain body parts, especially hands.

"If you zoom in on the images you can often see inconsistencies such as the number of fingers," he says.

What are other people saying?
A simple check of a few news sites is a sure-fire way to verify that Mr Trump hasn't been arrested or even indicted - at least, not yet.

If and when Mr Trump does face charges, his arrest will make headline news all around the world. And you can imagine the media flurry if the former president were to somehow flee from police.

Another good idea is to think about the context in which an image is being shared. Who's sharing it - and what are their motives?

Often people share pictures to amplify their broader political views, even if they haven't checked whether the photos are authentic, Mr Ajder says.

"We've seen really crude examples of other fakes such as the recording of Nancy Pelosi being slowed down to make her sound drunk," he adds. "That was a super crude piece of manipulation and yet many people were fooled by it - or at least wanted to believe it."

More weird details


What's blurry here? Look at the faces in the crowd



Are those police really chasing Trump or are they looking at something else?


AI technology has also not yet mastered accurate depictions of eyes.

In the image above, officers appear to be chasing Mr Trump - but they're looking in a totally different direction.

Trouble ahead?
AI experts told the BBC that while faked imagery is "nothing new", the speed of progress within the field, and potential for misuse, is something to be concerned about.

"Synthetic content is evolving at a rapid rate and the gap between authentic and fake content is becoming more difficult to decipher," says Mounir Ibrahim of Truepic, a digital content analysis company.

The experts agree that Mr Trump's fame makes the fakes easy to spot. But images of unknown people could make the task more difficult - and the technology is getting better all the time.

Bwa...the "arrest", DEEPFAKED LOL

Wow .. Hard to believe there are people that thought this is real...
... I got a chuckle when i first saw it .. I thought it was a photo shop, a good edit or whatever.. I didn't think anyone took it seriously... heheh
... Trump is what- 75? .. overweight..and he has lawyers .. Who would believe he would fight with cops, break loose, and lead them on a foot chase...lol .. Fucking absurd...sheesh
... But then... If they put it on MSNBC and CNN with the bobblehead mouth pieces stating it as fact, prolly half the country might believe it and it'd be all over the net within the hour... SMH

... A few social media sites have an AI thing that you can type something in ..a scenario or something and it will generate an image based on what was typed in ... I've been meaning to try it but haven't gotten around to it .. I know that Gab has one .. I think i might have seen one at facebook ... The images are pretty cool

A few days ago, a video showing Trump playing the Russian National Anthem was posted.

Now I wonder if that wasn't just a deepfaked one, or a very good imposter at the keyboard...

The video is a year old..

According to GOOGLE, only 17 of our presidents ever played an instrument of any type - Trump was not one of them.

Very long article:

"The ElevenLabs voice was so good it fooled my Chase credit card's voice biometric system."

On Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/z7yUeE6

Or at https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-cloned-myself-with-ai-she-fooled-my-bank-and-my-family-356bd1a3

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

AI kittens

Awww... so cute. And cheap to feed. No litter box...

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

AI GIRLS

Nice.

Have you guys tried the Chat GPT ?

Her leg doesn't look right either
... It did pretty good wiith the tiddies

Grackle wrote:

Have you guys tried the Chat GPT ?

Haven't tried it, or knowingly used it. Don't plan to anytime soon, but ya never know.