How an AI image of President Maduro emerged within hours of his capturePublished at 11:20 GMT
thomas copland
BBC Verify Live Journalist
An AI image purporting to show Nicolás Maduro in custody after being detained by the United States has received tens of millions of views online.
Maduro was taken into custody by the United States early Saturday morning. The first fake AI image appears to show him being escorted off a plane that will depart in the next few hours.
The image was not shared on any official U.S. channels, but was instead posted to X by the “AI Video Art Enthusiast” account, and when checked using Google's SynthID AI watermark detector, it was found to have been generated or edited with Google AI.
In the hours that followed, more AI-generated images appeared to show Maduro from more angles while he was in custody. A visible watermark on these images indicates they are from an Instagram account called ultravfx, whose profile says it is run by “artificial intelligence experts.”
SynthID says all of these further images were generated or edited with Google AI.
Donald Trump posted the first real photo of Maduro handcuffed aboard the Iwo Jima ship on Saturday morning. However, even after the real photo was released, the AI-generated image continued to circulate, but was updated to include the gray jersey Maduro was wearing.
A reverse image search reveals that these updated fakes were first posted to TikTok by a graphic design account. Once again, the SynthID AI watermark detector states that these further images were generated or edited with Google AI.
