AI-generated image falsely shared as 'first look' of revamped north India rail station
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 16, 2023 at 10:52
- 4 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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The image of a purported train station adorned with paintings of Hindu deities on its walls was shared here on Facebook on October 28, 2023.
"The look of Ayodhya metro station has been unveiled. Imagine, if Ayodhya metro station looks like this, how grand and beautiful lord Ram's temple will be. Long live Lord Ram," reads the Hindi-language caption.
India's rail authorities are reportedly racing to complete the redevelopment of the Ayodhya train station in the city in northern India's Uttar Pradesh -- considered a sacred site in Hinduism as it is associated with the birth of the deity Ram -- to coincide with the inauguration of a temple in honour of the god in January 2024 (archived link).
The temple is a decades-old election promise by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but also stands as a symbol of conflict with the country's Muslim minority as it will be built over the site of a 16th-century mosque that was destroyed by a mob in 1992.
The mosque's destruction sparked communal riots that left more than 2,000 people dead, while top BJP leaders who reportedly led the mob were acquitted by an Indian court in 2020.
The image was shared alongside similar false claims elsewhere on Facebook here and here.
But it is in fact an AI-generated image -- genuine photos of the interior of the Ayodhya railway station shared on social media by authorities are completely different.
AI-generated image
A keyword search on X -- formerly known as Twitter -- found a user with the handle "Mohit" had responded to a post comparing the AI-generated image to a genuine photo of the revamped Ayodhya railway station (archived link).
Mohit wrote: "The 1st one is created by me. If you closely observe both pictures, you'll notice many similarities, with only a few distinctions, like the shape and design of the pillars, aesthetic patterns on the ceiling, the height and size of the station, and the portrait of Shri Ram."
Although Mohit has deactivated his X account, he told AFP on November 7 he created the image with an AI generator.
"I created this AI image with the help of Bing AI Image Creator on October 22 after getting inspired from the AI images which I have quoted on my timeline," he told AFP.
Mohit had uploaded the image being shared in the false post, along with other AI-generated pictures, on his X account on October 22, 2023.
He captioned the post: "Multi-modal transport hub for cities like Ayodhya and Varanasi." Varanasi is another city in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
But he said he did not claim those images were genuine renderings.
"It was my creative expression. But I have come to know that these images are being misused by people."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the false posts (left) and the AI-generated picture uploaded by Mohit on X (right):
Metro service in Ayodhya
In February 2023, Indian media reported the Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation planned to introduce metro services in cities like Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura to boost tourism in the state (archived link).
However, the AI-generated image does not correspond in any way to genuine photos of the revamped Ayodhya railway station shared by the Ministry of Railways on its official X account (archived links here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the AI-generated image (left) and the genuine interior photo of the Ayodhya railway station (right):
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