An AI-generated image of Thai police officers in sparkly dresses arresting a meth dealer was widely circulated by UK media, including the Daily Star, The Telegraph, and The Sun, before being revealed as a fake. The original photograph, posted by Tha Luang police station, shows the five male officers in regular clothes, with no woman in a dancer costume present.
The station's Facebook administrator created the AI image to project a 'friendlier image' and show 'a cute and humorous side' of the police. The actual arrest was real, but the doctored picture was mistaken for genuine by several news outlets.
The incident highlights the growing challenge for media in verifying images, especially when they come from official sources. Editors acknowledge that AI verification tools are not reliable enough, and it is unlikely all AI images will be caught before publication.
Conversely, some genuine images are now being wrongly suspected as AI-generated, complicating the verification process further. The case underscores the precarious task facing news organisations in an era of increasingly sophisticated AI fakes.
