AI-generated images mislead online after Malaysia ex-PM hospitalised
- Published on January 20, 2026 at 09:40
- 2 min read
- By Raevathi SUPRAMANIAM, AFP Malaysia
After former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was hospitalised following a fall at his home on January 6, 2026, images purporting to show him undergoing physiotherapy circulated online. However, an aide to Mahathir told AFP that no photos from his hospital stay have been released, and detection tools including Google's Synth ID indicated the pictures were AI-generated.
A Malay-language Facebook post shared January 14 refers to Mahathir by his honorific and mentions the National Heart Institute (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur, where the 100-year-old was hospitalised as of January 20.
"Tun Mahathir is in the recovery process, undergoing physiotherapy at IJN," says the post, which garnered more than 32,000 likes and 860 shares.
Mahathir, who was prime minister from 1981 until 2003 and again from 2018 to 2020, fractured his hip after a fall at home (archived link).
His son, Mukhriz Mahathir, said doctors had advised against surgery due to Mahathir’s age and instead opted for a standard rehabilitation process.
Users' comments wishing Mahathir well indicate they believed the image was genuine. Similar posts spread elsewhere on Facebook and Threads.
But the images circulating online do not depict Mahathir in hospital.
AI-generated image
AFP uploaded the circulating image to the Hive Moderation detection tool, which found it 99.9 percent "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content" (archived link).
A further reverse image search led to a Facebook post published January 15 sharing a similar image bearing the watermark for Google's AI tool Gemini.
The image also contains visual anomalies that are hallmarks of AI-generated content, such as the illogical placement of the beds in the ward and a monitor that does not appear to be attached to anything.
In both versions of the image, Mahathir has braces on his leg instead of his hip, where he was injured.
An analysis using Google's SynthID detector, a tool designed to identify AI-generated content, indicated a "very high" degree of confidence that it was created using the company's AI tools (archived link).
Mahathir's aide Sufi Yusoff confirmed the image is AI-generated.
"It does not show Tun, we have not released any pictures so far," he told AFP in a January 19 text message.
AFP previously debunked misinformation about Mahathir when he was hospitalised for an infection in 2024.
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