Fake images that fooled the world

Posted by sandebert 4/12/2025

Fake images that fooled the world(www.theguardian.com)

150 points | 75 commentspage 2

the_af 4/13/2025|

The article is interesting, but I think it conflates two things:

"Things that never happened in the real world, and have been either created synthetically or with visual trickery"

- Man jumping into the void.

- Stalin's edited photos (Stalin didn't walk without Yezov at his side).

- North Korea's photoshopped/cloned hovercraft.

- The Cottingley Fairies, Loch Ness monster, "saucer" UFOs: visual trickery or props employed to simulate the existence of beings or vehicles that don't exist in the real world.

- Pope with jacket is of course completely faked with AI.

And

"Things that happened, but are staged or misrepresent reality/mislead the viewer".

Examples:

- The UK soldiers abusing a prisoner. The claim was probably false (in the sense in this particlar photo these weren't British soldiers) but it's true they were soldiers from some country abusing a prisoner. To my knowledge no-one claimed the photo was staged, just that it was misrepresenting the situation.

- Capa's Falling Soldier photo. This actually happened, it's just that it's likely staged.

They are not the same thing, and require different levels of skill!

AI facilitates creating anything, especially completely synthetic and fake. You don't even need to go to the location to take a photo and edit it.

foldr 4/14/2025||

>The UK soldiers abusing a prisoner. [...] To my knowledge no-one claimed the photo was staged, just that it was misrepresenting the situation.

These photos were staged AFAIK. I don't think anyone believes them to show real instances of abuse.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/dec/09/iraqandthemedi...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sorry-we-were-hoaxed-5...

the_af 4/14/2025||

Wow. Thanks for the correction, I didn't know this.

david-gpu 4/13/2025||

And some of the photos are labeled as "fake" with zero evidence that they are, indeed, fake.

I personally don't believe in Bigfoot, but the article presents no evidence of that particular shot being altered or staged in any way.

mcphage 4/13/2025||

They don’t know specifically how it was done—but it is, in fact, fake.

david-gpu 4/13/2025|||

There is a difference between beliefs substantiated by a gut feeling and beliefs substantiated by evidence. Like you, I have a gut feeling that it is, indeed, a person in a suit, but I do not have any evidence for that. The distinction is important in my mind.

the_af 4/13/2025|||

I agree it's not evidence, but even then, going by the principle of parsimony (which does not provide evidence, but is a reasonable way of thinking about this) the most likely explanation is also the less extraordinary or convoluted: a guy in a gorilla suit. Why reach for anything else, unless one wants to believe?

The existence of yetis is an extraordinary claim that would require convincing evidence by their proponents, of which this video isn't one (since it's trivial to film a guy in a suit, etc).

JKCalhoun 4/16/2025|||

I understand your logic. I just find I don't have patience to split hairs any more for an academic stance like yours. To do so these days is too overwhelming.

As xkcd has pointed out, there are cameras everywhere now. I think we can comfortably put Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster in the bin with the Fairies.

the_af 4/13/2025|||

I mean, it's obviously a guy in a gorilla suit. It walks like a guy, nothing about its "gait" is animal-like. A gorilla suit is well understood technology, it's just that this one was nicely made and not a cheap costume party suit.

Same with the guy who made saucer-like UFO photos. This is obviously dishware, only people who "want to believe" would be puzzled by the photos.

Reasoning 4/13/2025||

"By the 1940s, the image without the groom had become the standard version, and it created the enduring visual signs of the strongman leader – when Nigel Farage makes a speech atop a tank, or Vladimir Putin displays his bare chest, both are drawing on iconography developed by the Italian fascist."

Ah yes, equestrian portraits, something famously invented by the fascists. Someone should dig up Jacques-Louis so we can tell him he's a fascist now.

antod 4/16/2025|

Saying Mussolini developed iconography involving equestrian portraits is not the same as saying he invented equestrian portraits.

excalibur 4/13/2025|

Surprised the article makes no mention of the 2023 AI-assisted enhancement of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot clip. It's definitely a guy in a gorilla suit.

https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/bigfoot-footage-ai-sigh...

sandworm101 4/13/2025||

How could AI not make it look more like a man? Was the AI trained on lots of bigfoot footage? Or was it trained on lots of pictures of people? Give it enough leeway and it will probably render bigfoot as a man in a Barney costume, if that better confirms to the training data.

CharlesW 4/13/2025||

AI wasn't used to generate the clip, but to add some (hallucinated) detail and extend the background. FWIW, in pre-genAI stabilized examples from the 2000s it's also clearly a guy in a gorilla suit.

JKCalhoun 4/16/2025|||

Here is just an image-stabilized version (from 12 years ago if the YouTube date is assumed to be correct). No AI required.

https://youtu.be/Vsj0vK8LjVk

icameron 4/13/2025|||

Why does stabilizing the image make it any more or less apparent?

the_af 4/13/2025|||

I think it just means it removes the distractions of the grain and shaky camera.

But really, it was always evident it was a guy in a gorilla suit.

JKCalhoun 4/16/2025|||

You can see the link I posted (https://youtu.be/Vsj0vK8LjVk). To my eye it makes it more clear that it is just a dude walking like any human in a costume would.

I don't recommend it, but there is an image-stabilized Zapruder film out there that makes the Kennedy assassination a good deal more shocking/gruesome. You've been warned.

drooby 4/16/2025||

What if Bigfoot just happens to walk similarly to how people in gorilla costumes walk?

I mean after all.. Bigfoot is a humanoid..

the_af 4/13/2025||

Is there any doubt it's a gorilla suit? I think the article is disingenuous in not stating this clearly.

The article claims the suits of the apes in Planet of the Apes were "unconvincing", but they are just as convincing as the Bigfoot image, which is to say: they are clearly (nicely made) costumes.

We didn't need AI to "prove" what was already evident. And let me assure you -- this won't convince conspiracy theorists and Bigfoot fans, because above all, like Mulder, they "want to believe".