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| - Taiwan media share outdated AI-generated ‘Maduro in detention’ image as real
Multiple Taiwanese news outlets such as SETN 三立新聞網, ET Today, Next Apple 壹蘋新聞網, Yahoo! News Taiwan, FTV 民視新聞網, Liberty Times 自由時報 and others this week recirculated an AI-generated image purportedly showing ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a solitary cell, claiming that he shouted, “I am the president of Venezuela!” in the middle of the night.
These articles say Maduro has been suffering from extreme anxiety and emotional breakdown at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he has been held since his capture. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into U.S. custody in a military operation on Jan. 3. They face drug-related criminal charges in the United States.
However, the AI-generated image, now two months old, was fact-checked by Colombia Check in January and was proven to be inauthentic.
Annie Lab also ran the image, which appears to show security camera footage from Maduro’s cell, through the SynthID detection tool and confirmed that it was AI-generated. We tested identical images found on X and the ones used by Taiwanese media.
SynthID is a digital watermarking technology developed by Google DeepMind that embeds invisible markers into AI-generated content. These markers remain detectable even after the content has been uploaded and downloaded multiple times, edited, screengrabbed or compressed.
Although no AI detection tool is foolproof, and SynthID only works with content generated by Google’s AI models, a positive detection result means those invisible markers are present. These digital fingerprints indicate that the content was created by one of Google’s AI models.
The Taiwanese media, citing the falsified image, also quoted unnamed sources to suggest Maduro’s distress behind bars.
Annie Lab cannot independently verify whether Maduro has shown “extreme anxiety,” suffered an “emotional breakdown,” or screamed in his cell at night. What we can confirm is that the image is not authentic. It does not support the claims made in those articles.
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