An image of policemen kneeling in front of a group of Muslims is probably AI

A picture that appears to be AI-generated, and which we have fact checked before, is being widely shared on Facebook.

The picture seems to be a photograph of several police officers kneeling as though in prayer in front of a group of men in Islamic dress. A caption on the image, and in the posts sharing it, says: “Only traitors bow to Invaders”.

But as we said last year, this picture has not been traced to any credible source, and there are several signs that it is likely to be AI-generated.

One clue is that the police officer in the front-right of the image appears to have an extremely long left foot and unusual body proportions.

The left leg of the police officer in the front-left is also bent in a strange position and appears to be disconnected from his torso. This is particularly obvious if you increase the brightness of the image, as shown above.

There are some irregularities in the facial features of the men standing, such as distorted noses, eyes, mouths and hands—a well known indicator that an image may be AI-generated.

It’s important to check whether something is genuine before sharing it on social media. To find out more about how to spot AI-generated images you can read our guide.

Although some claims we check seem very obviously false, it’s not always clear to everyone that this is the case. We’ve written a blog explaining why we do this, which you can read here.

As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, it is harder to differentiate between real and generated content online. Our recent blog delved into what clues to look out for if you suspect something may have been created with AI.