Image of fireball surrounding Putin ‘stability’ billboard is AI | Fact check
By Andre Byik
A March 17 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a fireball and thick smoke behind a billboard showing Russian President Vladimir Putin beside a line of Russian text.
“Good morning to the russians,” reads the post’s caption. “The billboard says ‘stability.’ We work to inform you about the most recent and the most important news from Ukraine...”
Hany Farid, a professor who specializes in digital forensics at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed the image and found it includes distinct patterns in the subtle image noise that are consistent with AI-generated imagery...
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley.
