Aerial image of where 'Manaus meets the Amazon' is AI generated
- Published on March 18, 2025 at 09:25
- Updated on March 18, 2025 at 09:35
- 4 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
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"Clear division between the city and the forest in Manaus, Brazil," reads a Thai-language Facebook post shared on March 14, 2025.
Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas (archived link).
An image attached to the post, which was shared more than 4,800 times, purports to show an aerial view of where the city meets the rainforest.
The same image was also shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook in Thai, as well as other languages.
"Their country is so beautiful and well-organised," read a comment on one of the posts.
Another said: "The condominium with the forest view must be so expensive because there won't be any new buildings blocking them."
The image, however, was generated by artificial intelligence.
'Made with Google AI'
A reverse image search on Google led to several other posts that used the picture, but the website's "About this image" feature revealed a label indicating it was made using Google's AI tools.
A Google spokesperson told AFP that a SynthID watermark had been detected in the circulating image, "meaning the image has been generated or modified with AI".
SynthID, which was launched by Google's DeepMind AI lab in 2023, watermarks and identifies images generated with Google AI (archived here and here).
"This is exactly the sort of problem SynthID was intended to address, so we're glad to see it being put to good use here," the spokesperson said in a January 28 email.
Experts in the field also told AFP the image bore signs of being generated by AI.
Shu Hu, director of Purdue University's Machine Learning and Media Forensics Lab, said vehicles in the image are "uniformly white", an anomaly that is "highly improbable in real-world scenarios" (archived link).
He also identified an "absence of shadows under the vehicles" and "shadows cast by buildings (that) lack clearly defined shapes".
Siwei Lyu, director of the University at Buffalo's Media Forensic Lab (UB MDFL) pointed out to other inconsistencies, including misshapen windows on several buildings in the image (archived link).
Authentic Manaus photos
AFP photos from Manaus are similar to the falsely shared image, but show different buildings separating the built-up environment from the rainforest.
Google Earth's satellite and street view imagery also shows how buildings at the boundary of the city differ from the high-rises depicted in the falsely shared image.
AFP has previously debunked other AI-generated images that used Google AI.
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