{"id":394635,"date":"2026-01-06T05:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:08:09","slug":"ai-images-of-maduro-capture-reap-millions-of-views-on-social-media-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394635\/","title":{"rendered":"AI images of Maduro capture reap millions of views on social media | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minutes after Donald Trump announced a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d against Venezuela early on Saturday morning, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. There were fake photos of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> being escorted off a plane by US law enforcement agents, images of jubilant Venezuelans pouring into the streets of Caracas and videos of missiles raining down on the city \u2013 all fake.<\/p>\n

The fabricated content intermixed with real videos and photos of US aircraft flying over the Venezuelan capital and explosions lighting up the dark sky. A lack of verified information about the raid coupled with AI tools\u2019 rapidly advancing capabilities made discerning fact from fiction about the incursion on Caracas difficult.<\/p>\n

By the time Trump posted a verified photo<\/a> of Maduro blindfolded, handcuffed and dressed in grey sweatpants aboard the USS Iwo Jima warship, the fake images with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents had already gone viral. Across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, the AI photos have been seen and shared millions of times, according to the factchecking site NewsGuard.<\/p>\n

Vince Lago, the mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, posted the fake photo<\/a> of Maduro being escorted by the DEA agents to Instagram, saying that the Venezuelan president \u201cis the leader of a narco-terrorist organization threatening our country\u201d. Lago\u2019s post received more than 1500 likes and is still up as of this writing.<\/p>\n

Tools for detecting manipulated content, such as reverse image search and AI-detection sites, can help assess whether online images are accurate<\/a>, but they are inconsistent. Sofia Rubinson, a senior editor who studies misinformation and conspiracy theories for NewsGuard, told the Guardian that the fake images of Caracas are similar to actual events, which makes it even more difficult to figure out what is real.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the AI-generated and out-of-context visuals that are currently flooding social media do not drastically distort the facts on the ground,\u201d Rubinson said. \u201cStill, the use of AI-generated fabrications and dramatic, out-of-context footage is being used to fill gaps in real-time reporting and represents another tactic in the misinformation wars \u2013 and one that is harder for fact checkers to expose because the visuals often approximate reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

NewsGuard released a report<\/a> on Monday afternoon that identified five fabricated and out-of-context photos as well as two videos of the military operation in Venezuela. One AI-generated photo shows a soldier posing next to Maduro, who has a black hood over his head. An out-of-context video shows a US special forces helicopter descending on a supposed Venezuelan military site \u2013 the actual footage was taken in June at the Fort Bragg army base in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

NewsGuard said the seven misleading photos and videos it identified have now garnered more than 14m views on X<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n

Other footage from past events is also being circulated online and passed off as part of Saturday\u2019s strike. Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer and Trump confidant, posted footage of a poster of the Venezuelan president on X saying that \u201cthe people of Venezuela are ripping down posters of Maduro\u201d. According to Wired, the footage is from 2024<\/a>. Loomer has since removed the post.<\/p>\n

Another rightwing influencer and conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, posted an aerial video on X of thousands of people cheering in Caracas. \u201cMillions of Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas and other major cities in celebration of the ouster of Communist dictator Nicholas Maduro,\u201d Jones wrote. \u201cNow we need to see the same type of energy here on the HomeFront!\u201d<\/p>\n

The video, which is still up, has reached more than 2.2m views. Comments on the post from Community Notes, X\u2019s crowdsource moderation tool, say that the video is \u201cat least 18 months old\u201d. A reverse image search of the video shows that the footage is actually from a protest in Caracas after Maduro\u2019s disputed presidential win in July 2024.<\/p>\n

Grok, the platform\u2019s AI chatbot, also disputes the timeline of Jones\u2019 video, saying: \u201cCurrent sources show no such celebrations in Caracas today, but pro-Maduro gatherings instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta, X and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n