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| - A rumor circulating online claims that a photo shows tech entrepreneur Elon Musk wearing a black mesh crop top.
For example, in a Nov. 27, 2024, X post that has received nearly 500,000 views as of this writing, someone shared (archived) the image with the text: "c. 2018, deleted immediately off Cobrasnake archives and resurfaced via Wayback Machine," in reference to photographer Mark Hunter's archives and the website-archiving tool the Wayback Machine.
Hunter is known for his photography of American nightlife between the mid-2000s and early 2010s. His nickname is "The Cobrasnake."
In another popular post, a Reddit user on the r/whitepeopletwitter subreddit shared (archived) what appeared to be a screenshot of a post on Bluesky with the photo. The Reddit caption read: "MAGA — Thy Hatred Is Projection."
The Bluesky post (archived) was authored by the humor-centric user Liam Nissan — an account parodying the actor Liam Neeson — and included the viral caption about "Cobrasnake archives" with the added text: "This is real folks."
Further, a reverse-image search for the photo revealed that other people have also posted and discussed the same image on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Threads and X.
However, the story about the image being mysteriously removed from "Cobrasnake archives" only to resurface via the Wayback Machine years later was fictional. The image was fake; It was created with artificial-intelligence (AI) software and originally posted by its creator in March 2024.
AI Created Image of Musk In Crop Top
X user @SHL0MS created the image with generative AI software. They said via direct message they first experimented with the platform Flux AI but ended up using Midjourney for the final product. "It was Midjourney v6 and then upscaled and manually edited," they said. "I had tried Flux first but it wouldn't get his face or body proportions right."
@SHL0MS shared a screenshot of the process of creating the fake Musk image with Midjourney.
@SHL0MS originally shared the picture on March 1, 2024, with the caption: "Elon doesn't want you to see this, (c. 2018, deleted immediately off Cobrasnake archives and resurfaced via Wayback Machine)."
On Nov. 28, @SHL0MS reshared (archived) that post, adding in jest: "For some reason this is picking up steam again, so I would just like to remind everyone that it has never received a community note because it is 100% factual and real."
AI-Created Image Inspired Other Fake Pics
After that, another X user, @Pleightx, posted (archived) an altered version of @SHL0MS' AI-created image that included a genuine photo of U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance wearing a dress and blonde wig.
That same user, @Pleightx, also shared (archived) a fake picture of Musk sitting on a boat while wearing a black mesh crop top. (The original, shirtless photo of Musk was published by Page Six and credited to ThePhotOne/BACKGRID.)
We previously reported on another popular image that @SHL0MS generated with Midjourney — one that supposedly showed a collision involving two Tesla Cybertrucks.
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