In December 2023, I asked “Non-sarcastically, why am I so sure that this image is generated by AI?” and listed the reasons why I thought that a picture purporting to show gleeful Israeli soldiers in Gaza was a fake.
In July 2025, I must modify my question. Why am I mostly sure that this image, also purporting to show events in Gaza, is generated by AI?
I saw the picture in a Telegraph story written by Melanie Swan and called “More than 90 dead in UN aid truck massacre in Gaza”. The caption says, “Injured Palestinians are taken to hospital after over 90 were killed waiting for humanitarian aid Credit: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty”.
Here are some of the reasons why I think the picture is AI-generated:
Taken separately, all of the above points could be explained away. Lenses distort. Human bodies vary. Hunger makes people thin. Perhaps I will end up deleting this post in shame at having questioned the suffering of real human beings. Perhaps, but, having been able to find at least eight oddities, I think that Getty Images would be justified in putting a few pointed questions to Ali Jadallah.
However, I was right to say in 2023 that “this image is a great deal more realistic than those of only a few months ago. My spidey-sense for fake pictures will not last much longer”. It is even more true now.
Added 22/07/2025: Reading the comments to the Telegraph article, a lot of the commenters are saying, like me, that one of the photographs the Telegraph has used to illustrate it is fake. Only they are talking about a different picture. This one:
It shows a boy running away while a cloud of smoke rises from the buildings behind him.
With the picture of the men in the vehicle that I talked about above, my suspicions were raised the instant I saw it. The hyper-defined outlines and sharp colours gave a sort of slick, sweaty appearance to the flesh of the people depicted that I have often seen in A.I. art and noticed on that picture even before I started counting their digits. There is nothing like that in this second picture. The strange things about it suggest Photoshop rather than DALL-E or Midjourney. The border of the smoke cloud is at a suspiciously neat 45 degree angle. There is also something suspicious about the way the buildings to the left of the boy merge into the smoke. But the main problem is the running boy himself. The photographer appears to have caught him in mid-air – fine, that can happen when taking a photo of a person leaping or running, and catching that moment is usually considered the mark of a successful, dramatic picture – but he is too high off the ground to be plausible. And he has no shadow.
Or does he? There are two darker almost-horizontal lines or one slightly bent line below and to the left of him that could be his shadow. And before anyone brings up the similar horizontal lines to the right of him, those could be the shadow of a tree or pole just outside the picture. He is still suspended at an unlikely height, though. All in all, I am less convinced of the fakeness of this picture than of the other one – and the whole point of this post was that it is getting harder and harder to tell.
We are entering an age in which decisive authentication of a photograph will no longer be possible. The question will be whether one trusts the source. I do not trust anything coming out of Gaza.
I also remember debates about all those newspaper articles “loads of Nazis killed while demanding aid” in the 1940s….. oh wait NO I DIDN’T!
AI-generation discernment is actually going to be easier with the Palestinian pics and vids than with most other subjects.
They ALWAYS fake and lie. Just assume the opposite of what they show you. It’s a safe bet. And, in those few instances where it’s not AI, well, they’re the ones who trashed their own rep.
The handle on the door is a bit weird too.
Well if we’re talking about the cult of cousin love, it could well be AI: actual inbreeding.
The Western media, including the supposedly conservative Telegraph, are slavishly pushing the lies of the Hamas terrorist group – and other Islamic terrorist groups.
But it is not just Jewish people the media lie about – for example the media, again including the supposedly conservative Telegraph and GB News, have pushed the Epstein smear story against President Trump – even though they must know this is a Deep State distraction (if it was real the Biden/Harris Administration would have hit Donald John Trump with it) – a distraction from the declassified intelligence documents that show that the Putin regime did not hack the the Democratic Party National Committee (DNC) in 2016. The leak being internal – from a DNC official or officials who were disgusted by the rigging of the Democratic Primary process.
The Democratic Party candidate for President in 2016, 2020 and 2024 was NOT chosen democratically – the Primary process was a farce, and yet the media cover his up.
By the way Daily Telegraph – with your intelligence community links.
There is no statue of limitation for the pipe bomb left outside the Democratic National Committee building in 2021 – we know it was not a supporter of President Trump who did this. It was Deep State – and although that particular person may no longer be alive, who-gave-the-order needs to be exposed – made public.
And there is statute of limitations for murder – for example the murder of Mr Seth Rich in 2016.
Even if President Trump “has an accident” or “dies of natural causes” – the investigation will continue.
Short version of my last comment…
Nothing in the media, including supposedly conservative media such as the Telegraph and Daily Mail, can be trusted – they push dishonest narratives (lies) in order to further the agenda of the intelligence services and the international Corporate State.
This does NOT mean that everything in the media is a lie – most of it is not lies (the date, the weather forecast, sports results – and so on), but do-not-trust the media – including the supposedly conservative media.
Last point – Mr Putin’s media is not a real alternative, on the contrary, it pushes the same lies about Gaza – in order that the alliance with the forces of Islam continues (in spite of Islamic terrorist attacks against Russian civilians) – for example more Muslim soldiers in the Russian army, determined to kill the “Zionist entity” Zelensky of Ukraine.
I am certainly not a fan of everything President Zelensky has said (for example a friend showed me his fawning praise for Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada) or done – but Mr Putin is worse.
May I mention to those who have already commented that I have added some discussion of a second picture from the same Telegraph story.
These are supposed victims of a shooting massacre, but there is no blood or gunshot wounds visible. And they are covered in dust as if they have been in an explosion. They are just models who have been told “ now look like you’ve been blown up”
Also the perspective is off. The scene has a splayed out look, take the join between the black end wall and the adjacent white panel, and line it up with the red vertical lines in the shelving.
But the real tell is the glossy, hyper real appearance contrasted with the gritty subject matter.
What you’re seeing are distortions cause by the camera angle and wide-angle lens distortions.
One known effect is to make things closer to the camera appear larger or longer, such as arms and legs.
What it comes down to is people who are predisposed to believe the pictures and the story will believe them. People who are predisposed to disbelieve them will disbelieve them.
And people in the middle will continue worrying about going to work, filling their gas tank and playing ball with their kids and just tut-tut about all the discord in the world.
Pretty much like it’s always been.
Natalie,
I know a lot about AI imaging. One thing it very frequrntly gets wrong is protruberances. Arms, legs, digits, tails, and also people holding things. It is surprisingly difficult to, for example, get a knight to hold a sword in a believable way.
Having said that AI images have advanced dramatically in just the last two years I’ve been using it. Not just in quality but in cheapness. Why does the latter matter? Because you never know when you hit “create” whether you’re getting a masterpiece or a mutt. So create a lot.
Henry,
Interesting point but a very odd type of pic to use a wide-angle lens for.
OK. I’ll call it probs AI at some level. And it’s not just the toes. The guy on the far right just looks wrong and what is that weird reflective panel behind him? There is something else though (and I’m going out on a limb here). The image has a “feel” that is kinda like it’s been “grimed-up”. But… Another thing most AI models struggle with is typography and that Adidas logo is perfect. Final conclusion. Possible AI generated and almost certainly AI enhanced if it is taken from a real picture. This would explain both the accurate typography and Henry’s point.
Yeah, that’s where my money is going.
PS. If anyone wants to look at my AI stuff it’s on Nightcafe under @NickM. If anyone is so moved to join the fun then please quote @NickM and I’ll get 100 credits. If you let me know you’ve done that then I will tip you 50 back and that’s a nice initial war-chest.
People who lap up the daily bbc headline figures from the hamas run health ministry, the Palestinian Red Crescent and the UN are hardly going to question the authenticity of narrative enhancing photos showing children – which 99.9% of them do.
As has been said, we will soon not be able to trust any photo unless we trust the source. I’d say that’s true of everything online from Day 1 and maybe everything that has ever been said!
I’m at the point where I only trust things told directly to me by a person I trust…and even if I trust them, do I trust their sources. We all need to work on our “spidey senses”.
I’m about to post this and am being asked to prove I’m not a robot! I’m sure I will pass the test as these tests are easily fooled…so what do YOU believe?
ps following the “I am not a robot” test, the test asked me to identify motorcycles in a picture, then showed me a picture of scooters. Not one hog or real bike there. Shows what robots/AI think. Some day I need to make a list of things that bug me; it might help. I have my “Old Man Ranting” folder for just such things!
FWIW, there are some super tech ways to identify a fake photo, for example, looking at the noise patterns for asymmetry, and so they can still be used in court if you are willing to spend the money.
But aside from that, much as Natalie is struggling to create a checklist of validation rules, they are quickly becoming irrelevant. You should trust the information in a photo to the same degree you trust a written article.
It is also worth saying that video is almost as good. I have seen some AI generated video that is just shockingly good. And in some respects harder to test because you can’t just analyze a single frame in a lot of depth. My experience is that visually, the only way you can tell a really good AI video is that it is just a little too perfect.
So question, is this video real or fake? My opinion is that it is fake for two reasons: first it just seems very unlikely that someone could build something this complex in their house — with it your house would be useless, you’d always be tripping over trains. Second, it is just too perfect. There is, for example, no dust anywhere in the house, and something like this it would be impossible to vacuum around. So my conclusion is fake — but then I look and it was uploaded to YT 9 years ago. So now I’m not so sure.
FWIW, I thought this video was pretty good on the subject.
BBC broadcast film of starving infants in the 22:00 news yesterday. Odd thing was, none of the mothers looked emaciated.
The lies, about Gaza, in the Western media are endless.
They report, again and again, that the Jews have shot X number of Muslim civilians – when they know (they know) this is not true, that this is a lie of Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups.
They know that what they are reporting is a tissue of lies – because they are shown the evidence that it is not true, and they just carry on pushing the lies. It is not an honest intellectual mistake – it is a campaign of lies.
And the “conservative” media (at least in Britain) is the same as the Guardian-BBC and the rest of the openly leftist media.
They are not better than Mr Putin’s “RT” – which pushes the same lies about the Jews.
Decnine
My generation and the following one grew up exposed to photos of children from Biafra. Nothing we see today from Gaza even comes close yet there are many who thanks to countless media bombardment and a modern day education lap up the likes of this mornings bbc lead story:-
More than 100 agencies say mass starvation spreading across Gaza, accusing Israel of aid ‘siege’
The agencies’ statement says they “are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes”
On Tuesday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 33 people had died of malnutrition in 48 hours
One man tells me it costs 600 shekels (£133) daily just to eat lentils and one loaf of bread, Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf reports
However for a journalist Mr Abualouf is surprisingly reticent about who is, allegedly, selling food at these prices. Or maybe it’s not surprising.
John – the Western media, at least in Britain and France, reports every-day that there have been mass shootings of Muslim civilians in Gaza by Jews – “just people waiting in line for aid”.
They know this is not true, they are not making an intellectual mistake – they are LYING.
I thought I could not despise the media more than I already did – but I now do.
Journalists choose to lie since the start of the Hamas-Palestinian attack. I still remember the fake “500 deaths” at fake hospital attack. They all put it in front pages.
I’d be interested to wonder if the same can also be said about Ukraine/Russia at this stage, which appears to be sidelined by the coverage of the Israel conflict with its neighbours.
Excellent forensic analysis, Natalie.
Also something else missing from the picture. Lesions, lacerations, bandages. This could just as well be guys taking a breather after cleaning up rubble. Why are they being taken to the hospital? It was a massacre, right?
Johnathan Pearce – the war goes not well in Ukraine. The problems with the Russian rifle (the AK-12) have been sorted out, there are a lot more Russian troops than Ukrainian ones (well if you include all the Muslim troops out to kill the “Zionist entity” “Jewlensky” Zelensky, as “Russian”), Russian infantry (Russian and non Russian) has finally learned basic infantry tactics (three years ago it knew nothing), and Russian artillery, and rockets, and drones, now hit their targets (three years ago they were being fired randomly) – and there is a lot more Russian artillery, rockets and drones than Ukrainian.
The conclusions from the above are obvious – and horribly grim.
The media continue to lie – and not “just” about the Jews.
For example, the British media, including the supposedly conservative GB News and Telegraph group newspapers, continue to pretend that President Trump is covering up the “Epstein files” – when they know (they KNOW) that the people doing the covering up are judges out to protect Democrats.
We are expected to believe that the Biden/Harris regime sat on evidence against Donald J. Trump for four years – rather than using it to destroy him.
No one in the media really believes a word of this – they all know the truth and are making a choice to lie. Reversing the truth has become their default position.
For what it’s worth, this AI detector says it’s real. But at the least it’s heavily photoshopped.