{"id":909747,"date":"2026-09-29T11:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909747\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:48:13","slug":"man-charged-over-ai-generated-image-of-crocodile-that-led-to-search-operations-at-pandan-reservoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909747\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged over AI-generated image of crocodile that led to search operations at Pandan Reservoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE: \u00a0A 30-year-old man was charged on Tuesday (Sep 29) over an AI-generated image of a crocodile at Pandan Reservoir that prompted authorities to search for the reptile and suspend water activities<\/a> there.<\/p>\n

Ye Lin, a Myanmar national, was handed two charges \u2014 one count of communicating a false message and one count of obstructing the course of justice.<\/p>\n

Speaking through an interpreter, he told the court that he intends to plead guilty, and will not be engaging a lawyer.<\/p>\n

At about 3pm on Aug 20, Ye Lin allegedly sent an AI-generated image depicting a crocodile at the reservoir to a person named in court documents as Min Min Oo.<\/p>\n

The documents did not state their relationship, but the police said in a news release on Monday that Ye Lin had sent the image to his colleague.<\/p>\n

The next day, Ye Lin allegedly deleted the AI-generated images and the log history on the Gemini AI app from his mobile phone. This is the basis of the obstructing the course of justice charge.<\/p>\n

National water agency PUB had received information on Aug 20 that a crocodile had been sighted at Pandan Reservoir. PUB informed the National Parks Board and both agencies conducted search and capture operations in the area.<\/p>\n

The Singapore Rowing Association and Singapore Canoe Federation were also told to suspend all water activities in the reservoir.<\/p>\n

On Aug 21, PUB said that the photo of the crocodile had been found to be fake<\/a> and that a police report was lodged.<\/p>\n

Water activities at the reservoir were subsequently resumed.<\/p>\n

The police warned on Monday that they will not hesitate to take action against anyone who communicates falsehoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Apart from causing fear and inconvenience to members of the public, such falsehoods also result in public resources being unnecessarily deployed to deal with these incidents,” they said.<\/p>\n

Ye Lin will return to court on Nov 10.<\/p>\n

For communicating a false message, he could be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$10,000 (US$7,800), or both.<\/p>\n

The offence of obstructing the course of justice carries a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, or both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE: \u00a0A 30-year-old man was charged on Tuesday (Sep 29) over an AI-generated image of a crocodile at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[254,64,63,1108,48,11630,477757,128,338],"class_list":["post-909747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-crocodile","tag-pandan-reservoir","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}