Exposing Venezuela Victory Footage and AI-Generated Pictures of Maduro.

Computer-created images purporting to depict Nicolás Maduro in custody following his apprehension by the American authorities have garnered tens of millions of impressions across the internet.

The Way Fake Pictures of the President Surfaced Soon After

The first inauthentic synthetic picture seemingly showing him taken off a aircraft emerged a brief time later. This image was not shared any authoritative American sources; rather, it was posted on the platform X by an profile describing itself as an “enthusiast of AI-generated art”.

Our analysis used an AI-watermark detector, which found the picture was created or altered with Google AI.

Further AI-generated pictures began to spread in the ensuing hours, seemingly depicting additional perspectives of Maduro under guard. Discernible logos on these pictures reveal they were posted by an Instagram account called ultravfx.

SynthID indicates these additional images were also produced using generative models.

Real Photo Posted but Fabrications Persisted

The former US president shared the first real photo of Maduro in handcuffs aboard the US Navy ship on Saturday morning. But even after this confirmation was published, AI-generated images kept circulating but were updated to show the grey tracksuit seen on Maduro.

Online investigation show these updated fakes were first posted on the video platform by a digital art profile. Again, analysis says the new graphics were created or altered Google AI.

Key Points:

• Deepfakes gained traction after the news of Maduro's capture.
• The initial fabricated image was shared very quickly on platform X.
• Tools like Google’s SynthID helped to identify the images as inauthentic.
• Fabrications persisted to spread and evolve even after the release of authentic photographs.
• The source of many fabricated images was traced to specific online accounts dedicated to graphic design.