AI image of 'burning Temu warehouse in China' stems from satire

"Good thing I'm still at the add-to-cart stage," read Tagalog-language text overlaid on the image shared on Facebook on December 30, 2024.

It appears to show a big fire at a warehouse belonging to Temu, a shopping app owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings that has sucked in consumers across the world with its low prices (archived link).

Image

Screenshot of the false post taken January 3, 2025

The image spread online around the world, including in posts in English, Korean, Thai and French, with many social media users appearing to believe it showed a real inferno.

"Oh no what happens to my purchases?" one commented.

"Gosh I buy most of my household items here," another wrote.

AI-generated

The picture features several clues that it was created with artificial intelligence, including a "Grok" watermark in the bottom right corner, which refers to the generative AI chatbot created by Elon Musk's company xAI.

Other defects include the brand name misspelled as "Tehu" -- instead of "Temu" -- on the side of the warehouse and the inaccurate depiction of the company's official logo (archived link).

Image

While there is no foolproof method to spot AI-generated media, identifying watermarks and visual inconsistencies can help, as errors still occur despite the meteoric progress in generative AI.

'Simply a joke'

Reverse image searches on Google found an earlier upload of the image on the X account @DocAtCDI, who shared it with a humour-laden caption (archived link).

It read: "A 57,000 square foot Temu warehouse in China went up in flames today. The total loss of inventory has been estimated to be as high as $56.19 USD."

The user confirmed to AFP on January 4 that they made the photo using AI.

"There is a watermark that was left in on the bottom right to make sure people would know it was AI generated, it was simply a joke," they said.

The same account has previously posted AI-generated images of a burning Temu building.

Image

Screenshots of similar AI-generated images taken on January 3, 2024

Further keyword searches on X uncovered an earlier post with a similar caption but a different AI-generated image of a burning Temu warehouse, as indicated by the appearance of a Grok watermark (archived link).

Fact-checking organisation Snopes noted that Irish satirical channel The Waterford Whispers News previously shared a similar version of the joke about a Temu warehouse fire in a video uploaded on September 3, 2024 (archived here and here).

AFP found no official reports of a Temu warehouse catching fire, as of January 7.