Fact Check Finds Image Shared by Surya Thapa of Ali Khamenei's Funeral to Be AI-Generated

Kathmandu. Former MP and CPN-UML politician Surya Thapa has shared an AI-generated image on social media, falsely presenting it as a photograph from the funeral of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

Thapa posted the image on Facebook at 5:27 p.m. on Monday, describing it as evidence of the Iranian people's unity and respect during Khamenei's funeral.

In the post, he wrote, "Goodbye, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – this unity and respect of the Iranian people is great!" See the post, archive link, and screenshot.

On July 6, Facebook user Chudamani Khadka shared the same image on the platform. See the post and screenshot.

The image shows a massive crowd surrounding a coffin. However, the people in the crowd appear blurry and contain visual inconsistencies commonly associated with AI-generated content.

A reverse image search using Google found that the same image had been circulated by multiple social media users with similar claims.

The image was also fact-checked by Arabic fact-checking platform Misbar, which published its findings on July 5, concluding that the image was generated using artificial intelligence and falsely disseminated to depict a large crowd at Ali Khamenei's funeral. Read the fact-check.

TechPana also analyzed the image using multiple AI detection tools. One of the tools, Verify OpenAI Generated Image, indicated that the image was generated using OpenAI's image-generation technology.

The findings suggest that the image circulating on social media does not authentically depict Khamenei's funeral and is an AI-generated visual being shared with a false context.

पछिल्लो अध्यावधिक: असार २३, २०८३ १२:३६