Exposing Venezuela Celebration Videos and AI-Generated Pictures of Nicolás Maduro.

AI-generated graphics claiming to portray Venezuela's president in custody following his apprehension by the US have garnered countless of views on social media.

How AI Images of Maduro Appeared Rapidly

The first inauthentic synthetic picture apparently displaying him taken off a plane emerged shortly after. The graphic was not shared any official American sources; it was instead published on X by an profile purporting to be an “enthusiast of AI-generated art”.

We’ve checked the SynthID tool, confirming the image was created or altered with Google AI.

More AI-generated pictures were disseminated in the following period, purporting to present different views of the leader detained. Noticeable watermarks on these pictures indicate they originated from an Instagram account called ultravfx.

SynthID confirms all of these images were also generated or edited generative models.

Real Photo Released but Fakes Persisted

Donald Trump posted the first real photo of Nicolás Maduro restrained aboard the US Navy ship on that morning. Yet following this confirmation was published, AI-generated pictures continued to spread but were updated to incorporate the grey athletic wear worn by Maduro.

Online investigation indicate these updated fakes were first posted on the video platform by a digital art account. Similarly, SynthID says the new graphics were produced with AI tools.

Key Points:

• Deepfakes spread rapidly after the news of the president's apprehension.
• The first fake picture appeared on the same day on social media.
• Detection software like AI-watermark detectors helped to verify the images as AI-generated.
• Fabrications continued to circulate and be updated even after the release of authentic images.
• The source of several fabricated images was traced to specific online profiles dedicated to AI art.