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

Synthetic pictures claiming to portray Nicolás Maduro in custody after his apprehension by the United States have garnered tens of millions of impressions on social media.

How AI Images of Maduro Appeared Within Hours

Initial fabricated AI image seemingly displaying him led off a plane circulated within hours. The picture was unpublished by any official government accounts; rather, it was posted on X by an profile purporting to be an “enthusiast of AI-generated art”.

Our analysis used Google’s SynthID, determining the image was produced or modified with Google AI.

Additional AI-generated visuals were disseminated in the following hours, purporting to present different views of the leader under guard. Discernible identifying marks on these pictures show they came from an Instagram profile called ultravfx.

AI analysis says the further images were also generated or edited Google AI.

Real Photo Released but Fabrications Persisted

Donald Trump posted the first real photo of Maduro handcuffed aboard the USS Iwo Jima on that morning. But even after this real photo was made public, synthetic images kept circulating but were updated to include the gray sweatsuit seen on Maduro.

Digital forensics indicate the new fake images were initially shared on the video platform by a digital art profile. Similarly, analysis found these further images were created or altered generative artificial intelligence.

Key Points:

• Synthetic media gained traction following the events of the president's apprehension.
• The first fake image was shared very quickly on platform X.
• Tools like Google’s SynthID were used to verify the pictures as synthetic.
• Fabrications continued to circulate and be updated despite the publication of authentic photographs.
• The source of several fakes was traced to social media profiles dedicated to graphic design.