AI-generated images of dog rescuing kitten in flood-hit Thailand mislead online
- Published on November 26, 2025 at 10:08
- 3 min read
- By Pasika KHERNAMNUOY, AFP Thailand
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Southern Thailand was submerged by floods after being inundated by continuous heavy rains in late November, but images of a dog apparently bringing a kitten to rescuers in a boat that have circulated in social media posts by users across the region are AI-generated. The pictures were first published with a disclaimer they were not real, and Google's detector tool found they were made with its AI.
"In Songkhla province... A dog carried a cat in its mouth and rushed to the rescue boat for help with all of its strength," reads a Thai-language Facebook post published on November 23, 2025.
The post, which has racked up 5,600 reshares, includes three images of a dog bringing a kitten to rescuers in a boat in floodwaters.
Widespread flooding caused by a week of torrential rain in southern Thailand has left 33 people dead, authorities said on November 26 (archived link).
More than 1,200 people have been evacuated from their homes in Songkhla province, where a state of emergency has been declared.
Thailand regularly records heavy rainfall from June to September, but experts say human-induced climate change has intensified extreme weather, making conditions increasingly unpredictable.
The images of the purported dog rescuer spread across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and X, as well as in posts in English, Malay, Vietnamese, Burmese and Chinese.
"Good boy. He doesn't leave the cat even if they're different species," one user commented.
Another said, "Their eyes make me speechless. One image, a million emotions. Really thankful to the rescuers who save them."
But the visuals were in fact generated using Google's AI tool.
A reverse image search on Google revealed all the images were flagged as "Made with Google AI".
Google's SynthID Detector -- a tool launched in May 2025 to identify AI-generated content -- detected digital watermarks that indicated they were created using its generative model (archived link).
The images also contain visual inconsistencies indicative of AI-generative content, such as a house in the background of one of the pictures that appears to have multiple front doors.
Meanwhile, the water level also appears inconsistent, with trees and buildings with floodwaters reaching high levels while the dog's body remains above the water.
A date and time stamp at the bottom right corner reads "8:10 PM" despite the pictures showing a daytime scene.
AFP found a now-deleted November 22 post sharing the pictures that featured a disclaimer by the user that said they were AI-generated. The user did not respond to AFP's request for comment.
Screenshots of the post with the disclaimer were shared elsewhere on Facebook in posts warning other users that the images were made with AI (archived link).
AFP has debunked other claims related to recent floods in Thailand.
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