India Today group's AajTak and AajTak Bangla recently used two artificially generated images of former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and falsely claimed that the photos were clicked after Khan was arrested following a court ruling in Pakistan.
BOOM found that the pictures were created using a generative AI tool and does not show real images of Khan in prison as claimed.
Khan, who also led the Pakistan cricket team in international level, was arrested on May 9, 2023 at Islamabad High Court by paramilitary troops over corruption charges. Following the incident, Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party asked its supporters to hold protests over his arrest stirring up violence in major cities across the country, reported Reuters.
AajTak Bangla published both images in a report with a headline saying, "Imran Khan Arrest: Pakistan is burning, how is Imran in jail? Picture leaked".
(Original Headline in Bengali: Imran Khan Arrest: আগুন জ্বলছে পাকিস্তানে, জেলে কেমন ব্যবস্থা ইমরানের? ছবি Leaked)
The article mentioned two images of Khan apparently from a prison cell while reporting about his arrest in Pakistan.
Hindi news channel AajTak, too, aired one of these images in its news bulletin claiming that the photo of Khan is from a prison cell.
Click here to view the tweet.
The news bulletin was also shared on AajTak's official Facebook page. It can be seen below.
Fact Check
BOOM first ran a keyword search and found multiple social media posts carrying the same pictures with a watermark mentioning 'exclusive by midjourney'.
Click here to view one such post.
Midjourney is a generative AI tool that creates hyper-realistic images based on text prompts.
We also observed both the images published by AajTak Bangla closely and found that the pictures are not real. The pictures carry notable discrepancies that are usually common in artificially generated images.
Imran Khan With Seven Toes!
BOOM noticed that one of the images of Imran Khan published by AajTak Bangla shows the former Pakistan cricket captain with seven toes on one foot.
We compared the AI generated photo with a real photo of Khan. The comparison can be seen below.
We also noticed that the other image of Khan is a cropped version of a photo that is circulating with a watermark mentioning 'exclusive by midjourney'.
The second picture, too, carries a major anomaly that can be found in artificially generated images.
No Gap Between Hands
BOOM zoomed into the picture and found that Khan's hands blend into each other. The comparison of visuals can be seen below.
BOOM has debunked a number of deepfake images created using Midjourney. The software is known to struggle with accurately recreating parts of the human anatomy, particularly hands and fingers.
We previously debunked similar AI-generated images of former United States president Donald Trump after he surrendered and was placed under arrest in April this year. The stories can be read here.