AI-generated picture of human hand 'meat' at supermarket fools Facebook users

Published on April 18, 2024 at 09:58
Updated on April 18, 2024 at 10:00
2 min read
By Asma HAFIZ, AFP India

A digital artist who made a picture appearing to show human hands for sale on store shelves clarified it was created with artificial intelligence, contrary to Facebook posts presenting the picture as "human meat on the market". The picture racked up thousands of shares in the posts, the latest case of AI-generated images fooling social media users.

"Human Meat On The Market !" reads a Facebook post with more than 5,900 shares.

It appears to show a photo of human hand-shaped meat packaged on a supermarket shelves.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on April 8, 2024

The image was shared with in similar Facebook posts here and here and also circulated on X, formerly Twitter.

While some social media users pointed out the picture was "fake", other appeared to believe it was a genuine photo.

"I wouldn't be so surprised how the world is normalizing things nowadays that used to be unacceptable in the past," read one comment on a Facebook post sharing the image.

"I'm so happy I’m a raw vegan. I don't ever have worry about this type of sickness," another said.

AI-generated image

A keyword search on Facebook found the image posted on March 22, 2024 a page called "Nik Art" on March 22, 2024 (archived link).

The page, which has more than 36,000 followers, regularly posts AI-generated content (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in false posts (left) and the image on the "Nik Art" Facebook page (right):

Screenshot comparison of the image shared in false posts (left) and the same picture shared by Kudela on his Facebook account

Nik Kudela, who lives in Slovakia and runs the "Nik Art" page, confirmed to AFP that he made the picture.

"I created this image with an AI tool called Midjourney. Now it is being shared on social media wrongfully," he told AFP on April 2, 2024.

Kudela shared his Midjourney settings with AFP to show how he made the image.

The settings used to create the AI image shared by Kundela on April 2, 2024

Furthermore, the image features telltale signs that it was made using AI.

Some of the hands in the picture have missing fingers -- a common glitch in AI-generated images -- while price tags on the supermarket shelves show nonsensical text.

AFP has published a guide on spotting AI-generated images here.

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