Posts share AI-generated snow sculpture image after Thailand team wins second in Japan contest
- Published on March 5, 2024 at 07:22
- 3 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
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"Congratulations to the team of Thai ice sculpture artists who won the 1st place at the Sapporo Snow Festival 2024, Japan," reads the Thai-language caption of a Facebook post on February 25, 2024.
The post, which has been shared nearly 3,000 times, includes an image that appears to show a dragon-shaped snow sculpture with a number of people working on it.
The same image, along with other similar pictures, was viewed with the false claim millions of times across Facebook here, here and here and TikTok here and here.
Other users left comments indicating they believed the images were genuine snow sculptures made by the Thai team.
"Thailand's team is superb. The country doesn't have snow but the team could win the first place," one user wrote.
"Very beautiful. Let me share the photos so that Thai people can see the beautiful handicrafts made by Thai people," another wrote.
However, the images are AI-generated and the Thai team actually came in second place at the Sapporo Snow Festival's International Snow Sculpture Contest held in February 2024, according to the event's website (archived link).
The Mongolian team took home first place.
Genuine snow sculpture photo
The Thai team's genuine snow sculpture titled "The Naga Fireballs", can be seen in photos published on the snow festival website (archived link).
Other photos were published by The Bangkok Post, credited to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, seen in the screenshot below (archived link):
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the false post (left) and the Thai team's genuine snow sculpture (right):
Other photos of the sculpture can be seen on the website of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Newsroom and published by English-language Thai newspaper The Nation (archived links here and here).
The Thai tourism authority's press release and the news reports all state the Thai team were the runners up in the contest.
AI-generated images
Keyword searches on Facebook found this post shared in a group called "BING AI Artistry Collective" on February 7, 2024, which features 21 images of dragon shaped snow sculptures (archived link).
"Congratulations to the team of Thai ice sculpture artists who won 2nd place at the Sapporo Snow Festival 2024, Japan," Facebook user Mahachai Chai wrote in the caption, which also includes the hashtags "AI art" and "hypothetical event".
All of the pictures include a watermark that reads "AI, Chai Mahachai".
The image shared in the false post corresponds to this picture shared by the Facebook user (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and Mahachai Chai's Facebook post (right):
The user confirmed the images were made with AI in response to a comment on his post and said he made them to congratulate the Thai team on their win.
AFP has debunked false posts sharing other AI-generated images here, here, and here.
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