Portrait of Prince George and Princess Charlotte is AI creation

An image which is being widely shared on Facebook has been mistaken for a photograph of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, at least by some users. But the portrait has been created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is not genuine.

One post featuring the picture has been shared over 1,900 times, with the caption: “Prince George and Princess Charlotte, the picture is lovely.”

Comments on the post include: “Beautiful photo of them!”, “Beautiful photo”, “What a lovely photo” and “What a lovely lovely photo he’s very handsome and she’s very pretty”.

The realistic image shows the eldest son and daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales, in what appears to be an official portrait.

Within the picture, Prince George wears a blue suit and tie, and Princess Charlotte has a white dress with a matching headband, against a dark background. 

However, there are clues that the picture is not genuine. 

Prince George’s right hand, visible at the bottom left of the image, seems to have three fingers and a thumb, rather than four fingers and a thumb. 

Similarly, the right arm of Princess Charlotte appears to be swollen and far larger than her fingers or thumb.

As our guide about how to spot AI-generated images explains, issues with correctly depicting hands, and in particular the right number of fingers, are often a hallmark of work created digitally.

The hair on both children is also stylised and unnatural; and the whole photo has a glossy sheen—another sign of an image likely created using AI.

Prince George is now ten years old, and Princess Charlotte is eight years old. They appear far younger than this in the image being shared.

However, there are also physical differences when compared to real photographs of the children when they were younger, such as nose, mouth and eye shape.

This is not the first time we’ve seen AI images being shared as if they’re genuine, or mistaken for real images, including pictures of hay bales and tractors by the Eiffel Tower, Pope Francis addressing crowds in Lisbon, as well as videos supposedly showing Sir Keir Starmer and BBC presenters promoting an investment scheme. 

Image courtesy of AXP Photography