Thai police admit viral photo of 'undercover operation' where officers allegedly dressed as women was created by AI
Thai police have confirmed that a photo of officers in sparkly dresses, which was circulated as footage of a special operation to arrest a drug dealer, was created using artificial intelligence.
This is reported by the Guardian.
The image was posted on the Facebook page of the Tha Luang police station on May 21. The post claimed that the officers were acting undercover during the arrest of a known drug dealer.
After the photo was published, it went viral. It was used by the British Daily Star, as well as the Telegraph, Sun and New York Post in their articles and photo reports.
Later, the administrator of the police station's page admitted that the image itself was generated by artificial intelligence, although the arrest itself actually took place.
"I wanted to create a friendlier image of the police - to show their sweet and humorous side - so that people would feel more comfortable approaching the police. Sometimes the public feels intimidated by the police," police sergeant Rachata Mitrsuripong told local media.
The station's Facebook page then published a real photo from the day of the arrest.
The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Sun and other publications later clarified that their publications were based on a fake image shared by the official police account. The Guardian noted that the situation demonstrates the difficulty of verifying images for the media, even when the source is the official pages of government agencies.
As a reminder, the head of the 24 Channel website, Anastasia Zazuliak, along with her deputies, left the media outlet. The decision was likely made against the backdrop of management's plans to launch an AI news feed and dismiss some journalists with an automated system.