An image with visual errors suggesting it had been generated using artificial intelligence (AI) was shared thousands of times in posts that falsely passed it off as a genuine picture taken from a royalist rally in Thailand. The image surfaced on social media as people gathered in the capital Bangkok to show support for the monarchy in response to a royal motorcade protest.
“Scenes from Chulalongkorn University this afternoon!” reads the Thai-language caption to the image shared on Facebook on February 15, 2024.
It was shared on the same day people gathered at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok to show support for Thailand’s monarchy.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn is officially a revered, semi-divine figure in Thai society and is protected by some of the world’s strictest defamation laws.
But long-held taboos around discussing the royal family were undermined by a youth-led protest movement that erupted in 2020.
On February 13, two activists were arrested on sedition charges for reportedly trying to interrupt the convoy of the king’s sister.
The image featured in the Facebook post appears to show an aerial shot of a large assembly of people standing in a heart-shaped formation.
Several structures — including what looks like a Buddhist temple — are seen in the background.
The post was shared more than 3,800 times.
The same image was also shared with a similar claim on Facebook here and here, and on TikTok here and here.
Comments to the posts indicate some people believed the image is genuine.
“I’d call this power. My beloved country Thailand needs to be like this,” one wrote.
“Anti-monarchy protesters would be shocked. If we continue doing this, they wouldn’t dare protest on streets again,” said another.
Signs of AI
An analysis of the photo, however, found signs it had been generated using AI technology.
For example, Thailand’s national flag consists of horizontal stripes of red, white, blue, white and red.
But in the image people are seen waving flags where the blue stripe appears distorted as highlighed by AFP in the screenshot below:
Moreover, multiple photos of the actual rally published by local media The Standard show people gathered in front of the Two Kings Monument in Chulalongkorn University (archived link).
The location of the rally corresponds to Google Maps street imagery of the monument here.
In contrast, the structures seen in the image in the false posts, including the seemingly Buddhist temple, does not appear on Google Maps.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image circulating online (left) and Google Maps imagery of the grounds where the rally was held (right) with the inconsistent structures highlighted:
Although generative AI technology has seen great progress, visual errors still show up in AI-generated content.
These defects are the best way to recognise a fabricated image, experts told AFP.
AFP has previously debunked AI-generated images that had been falsely shared as genuine here and here.
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