| schema:text
| - FACT CHECK: X Image Purporting To Show Kamala Harris With Jeffrey Epstein On Beach Is AI-Generated
An image shared on X claims to show Vice President Kamala Harris with late financier Jeffrey Epstein on a beach.
Where’d #KamalaHarris get her experience? pic.twitter.com/X6vBGvLGEA
— Doc Reichenbach (@DocReichenbach) July 25, 2024
Verdict: False
The claim is false. A content detection scan using the website “Hive Moderation” reveals the image is 98% likely to have been generated with artificial intelligence (AI). A media forensics and AI expert denied the image’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.
Fact Check:
Former Democratic President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama recently endorsed Harris for president, according to CNN. The endorsement was made via video, the outlet reported.
The X image purports to show Harris with Epstein on a beach. “Old photos never lie,” text included on the image reads.
The claim is false. A content detection scan using the website “Hive Moderation” reveals the image is 98% likely to have been generated with artificial intelligence (AI). The results of the same scan indicate the image was likely created using either Stable Diffusion or Stable Diffusion XL.
Check Your Fact reviewed the image and both Harris and Epstein only appear to have four fingers on their visible hands. Missing, extra, or deformed fingers are a hallmark of AI-generated images, according to BuzzFeed News.
Likewise, Check Your Fact did not find the image referenced in any credible news reports about Harris or Epstein. In fact, the opposite is true. On July 25, Snopes reported the claim was false. The outlet also determined the image was AI-generated using the website “Is It AI?.”
Additionally, Harris has neither commented on the image via her website nor her verified social media accounts. (RELATED: Was Kamala Harris Ranked The Most Liberal Senator By GovTrack?)
Dr. Walter Scheirer, a media forensics and AI expert from the University of Notre Dame, denied the image’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.
“This photo is likely the product of AI or some other form of image editing. The quality of the image is rather low, and it contains localized blurring artifacts that are common in AI-synthesized imagery (for example, the rectangular patch above Epstein’s shoulder on the right). Further, the rendering of Harris is unrealistic. The appearance of her hand and teeth do not match authentic photos,” Scheirer said.
This is not the first time a false claim has circulated online. In 2021, Check Your Fact debunked a Facebook image purporting to show Harris standing next to Epstein.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)