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Trump seen with Jeffrey Epstein? Here are some tips for spotting an AI-generated photo

Donald Trump sitting with an underage girl next to Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier accused of sex crimes… this is what a photo published on social media on July 4 claims to show. But the image was in fact generated by artificial intelligence. Here are some tips on how to spot AI-generated images by looking for the telltale weaknesses that give them away.

If you only have a minute:

  • A photo published on July 4 allegedly shows former President Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, a businessman imprisoned for sex trafficking, in the company of a young teenager.

  • The photo was generated by AI, as evidenced by several anomalies in the anatomy of the people in the image.

The fact check, in details:

Damning evidence against Donald Trump? The former occupant of the White House appears alongside Jeffrey Epstein, a financier accused of sex crimes who committed suicide in prison in 2019. The two men are allegedly seen next to an underaged girl, in a photo published on July 4, viewed more than 2.5 million times on X and also shared on Facebook.

The photo appears to have been taken during a festive evening. Trump can be seen placing his hand on the teenager’s thigh, while Epstein appears shirtless behind the young girl. But the image was generated by artificial intelligence. The Observers team tells you how to spot the work of AI in this photo.

1 – Find an unretouched version of the photograph

2 – Analyze people in the background

3 – Look at the hands

4 – Count the legs

5 – Investigate the context and source of the image

Read more on The Observers – France 24