Posts claiming Thailand army staged troop pictures share AI images
- Published on December 25, 2025 at 03:53
- 2 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
After Thai media reported the country's army had retaken a temple on the disputed border with Cambodia, images were shared in Khmer-language posts falsely claiming Thailand's military had staged pictures of their troops using a studio and green screen. The images were flagged as having been made with Google's AI tools, and contain visual errors indicative of fabricated content.
"What more is there to explain, Siam? Stop deceiving people. It's time to stop acting -- you've been caught. Do you have no shame, Siamese thieves?" reads a Khmer-language Facebook post shared on December 21, 2025, using a historical name for Thailand.
The post includes six images. They purportedly depict three photos of Thai soldiers at a temple on the country's disputed frontier with Cambodia and corresponding images showing the pictures were in fact taken in a studio against a green screen.
The images circulated after Thai media reported that Thailand's army had retaken control of Ta Khwai Temple and Hill 350 during border clashes with Cambodia, which reignited in December 2025 (archived here and here).
The latest clashes, stemming from a decades-long dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of the neighbours' 800-kilometre (500-mile) border and a smattering of ancient temple ruins situated on the frontier, have killed at least 23 people in Thailand, 21 in Cambodia, and displaced more than 900,000 people on both sides (archived link).
Several of the images also circulated in similar Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram posts claiming photos of the Thai army were staged in a studio.
The pictures of the Thai soldiers posing on the grounds of a temple were originally shared on a Facebook page that regularly posts updates about the Thai military on December 20 (archived link). The Thai-language post says the pictures show Thai troops at the Ta Khwai Temple and Hill 350 after they were retaken.
Colonel Ritcha Suksuwanon, deputy spokesperson of the Royal Thai Army, told AFP on December 22 that these pictures were taken at the disputed border area two days earlier.
While AFP was unable to independently verify the authenticity of those pictures, the images depicting a studio environment are fabrications.
A reverse image search on Google found the studio images were labelled as "Made with Google AI" on the search engine's "About this image" feature.
A closer analysis of the images shows they contain visual indications of having been created with the help of AI, such as indecipherable text on a clapperboard and people in the background having features that appear blurred.
AFP ran the images through Google's SynthID detector, a tool designed to identify AI-generated content, which said -- with a "very high" degree of confidence -- that they were created using the platform's AI tools (archived link).
The images have also been debunked by Thai PBS Verify and Anti-Fake News Center Thailand (archived here and here).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to the border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand.
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