AI-generated image of technicolour Indian train fools social media
- Published on September 7, 2023 at 08:20
- 4 min read
- By Uzair RIZVI, AFP India
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"This is a picture of Trivandrum railway station in Kerala specially decorated for Onam," reads a caption for an image shared here on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 29, 2023.
Trivandrum railway station -- now called Thiruvananthapuram Central -- is in Kerala's capital, Thiruvananthapuram (archived link).
The caption continues: "The flowers near the tracks are real and have been planted specially for the occasion. Onam [is] being celebrated from 20 August to 2 September."
Onam is an important harvest festival celebrated in Kerala at the beginning of the first month of the Malayalam calendar, which corresponds to around August and September (archived link).
According to the India Times news website, the 10-day festival culminated on August 29 (archived link).
The same image was shared elsewhere on X here and on Facebook here and here in posts that also claimed it showed a railway station in Kerala.
Comments on the posts suggest some users believed the train and station had been specially decorated for Onam.
"Love Kerala, beautiful," read one comment.
Another said: “That's a very scenic environment.”
The image, however, was created using artificial intelligence.
Railway development 'vision'
A reverse image search on Google led to the same picture, uploaded to Facebook here on July 29, 2023 (archived link).
The picture's caption says "Vande Bharat train" in Hindi and "Kasaragod to Trivandrum Onam special" in English.
The locally made, semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express trains are touted as India's fastest. With a top speed of 180 kilometres (111 miles) per hour, they are 20 percent quicker than the next fastest train in service.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image used in the false posts (left) and the same image posted on Facebook on July 29 (right):
The picture was posted by Aneesh Chakkottil, who runs an advertisement agency in the United Arab Emirates.
Chakkottil responded to several comments on his post by saying the picture is an "AI image".
He also told AFP that he created it using an AI tool.
"It is an AI-generated image created using the tool Midjourney and Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately, this post has been used in a wrong way,” he said on September 1.
"It's also my vision for railways to develop in a similar way, and Kerala was expecting commencement of Vande Bharat train during Onam," he added.
A Vande Bharat Express service runs between Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, but a second express service for the state has been delayed as officials have not yet confirmed the route it will ply, according to a September 4 report by local media outlet Asianet News (archived link).
A comparison of the train seen in the AI-generated image and the photo of a Vande Bharat train used in the Asianet News report also shows significant differences, including the shape of their nose cones and the layout of the windscreen and passenger windows.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the train in the AI-generated image (left) and the photo used in the news report (right):
The official account of the Thiruvananthapuram railway division, which manages the route, described the AI-generated image as "fake news" in a post on X on August 25 (archived link).
Part of the post reads: "An edited picture of a colourful train is circulating on social media with a claim that it is from a railway station in Kerala. The claim is false."
"The train in the image is from Kyoto, Japan. Do not fall for fake news!" the post adds, comparing the picture to a similar one from the stock image website Pngtree (archived link).
There have also not been any official reports about a Vande Bharat Express train or Thiruvananthapuram station being decorated specially for Onam.
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