***
After Richard Tice posted a picture of an apparent Reform campaign event on Sunday, experts and social media detectives took a closer look and concluded from a variety of telltale signs that the image had either been edited or generated by artificial intelligence. Here are some of the elements that critics called into question.
***
1. Mangled fingers
One woman has six fingers on one hand and extra long ones on the other. The man in the beige jacket has three extremely long fingers which look like sausages. AI often gets fingers wrong.
***
2. Garbled signs
The signs are supposed to read “Get Starmer Out” but the text reads more like “Get Stuppence out”. The Reform arrow on many of them is also wonky. AI image programs often struggle with generating or editing text.
***
3. Blurred faces
Lots of the faces of the campaigners appear smeared and blurred, with one man appearing to have closed, wonky eyes.
***
4. Perfect lines and geometric patterns
The pixel-perfect vertical lines on the railings are suspicious, and if you zoom in on the concrete you can see the pattern is perfectly geometric, which is a sign of AI.
***
5. Mysteriously floating objects
The man in the red T-shirt and white jacket does not appear to be holding his “Get Stuppence Out” sign, instead it is floating in front of him.
***
Reform UK has denied the picture is AI-generated. A spokesperson said: “The photograph is real, however the version Richard Tice posted was slightly edited using AI, mainly to increase the brightness.”
Read more on this story here
