A crying girl and a flood. When artificial intelligence causes tears

The effects of the flood that hit southern Poland in the second half of September this year are being removed. In the Głuchołazy commune, soldiers are supposed to help flood victims Bundeswehr. “We have paid benefits to flood victims in the amount of approximately PLN 200 million, and today or tomorrow we will pay another PLN 13 million” – October 8 this year. at the meeting of the Council of Ministers he gave government representative for post-flood reconstruction, Minister Marcin Kierwiński.

Meanwhile, misleading materials, including those created using artificial intelligence, are used on social media to criticize the government's relief efforts during the floods.

A photo of a several-year-old girl, an alleged flood victim in southern Poland, caught the attention of many Internet users. A crying, wet and terrified girl sits on the bow of a small green boat. He is wearing a large orange life jacket. He cradles an equally wet puppy in his arms. It's raining, the boat floats on the surface of dirty water – the effect of a flood. In front you can see a second boat carrying other flood victims. On the right you can see a building flooded with water.

On October 7, 2024, the graphic was shared by one of the users of website X. “Tusk's life is not worth one tear of this child….!!!!” – he wrote in the post by an Internet user (original spelling of all posts) in response to a post by Law and Justice MP Monika Pawłowska. The politician's entry was critical of the current government's actions in terms of helping those affected and rebuilding flooded areas after the flood. “There is a report from Lewin Brzeski on Polsat News, where people left on their own have to deal with the effects of the flood. They report that they have not even been paid the promised PLN 10,000 of non-returnable aid. Where is Prime Minister Tusk? The reconstruction representative is sleeping? ” – wrote Pawłowska. And so the Internet user's entry was viewed 97,000 times. times.

A day later, the same photo, but with the inscription “Why are you lying to me, Mr. Tusk”, was published by another Internet user. “The photo stays on Facebook for two seconds and then they block it” – he stated on website X. This entry has been viewed over 150,000 times. times.

Graphics with the same signature they published numerous users Facebook. One of them he asked: Where is the HELP for the flood victims from Tusk and his leftist buddies and other anointed ones???

Many X users commented on popular entries: “We'll pass this on”; “I'm not surprised! This photo exposes and accuses this pathological authorities for causing this tragic flood! If this pathological authorities had not appointed incompetent guys and reacted in time, we would not be dealing with a flood but with local flooding!!!”; “I tear up when I see this photo, I think I still have a heart,” they wrote in reaction.

Some claimed that the photo was not real and did not represent the situation in Poland. “It's not a photo”; “This is not a flood photo”; “I hate Tusk, but this is not a photo from Poland. There is no point in spreading such photos”; “Tusk is also lying to people in the states,” they commented.

So we checked whether the photo was authentic and whether it depicted events related to the recent flood in our country.

American fact-checking websites wrote about the graphic on October 4 Snopes and CheckYourFact. As it turns out, the graphic was previously shared by American Internet users in the context of the flood caused by Hurricane Helene.

This hurricane hit to northern Florida on September 26 before heading toward the southeastern United States. A day later, the elements became a post-tropical cyclonehowever, it continued to bring heavy rains to several states, causing life-threatening flooding. By October 4, 213 people died due to the element. On Wednesday, October 9, another hurricane, Milton, made landfall on the western coast of Florida as a Category 3 hurricane. Along with it, the state was hit by tornadoes, winds of over 165 km/h and flash floods.

The earliest versions of the illustration with the crying girl appeared on the Internet on October 3, 2024. It was often used in English-language social media posts. In many of them, Internet users argued that more money goes to help Ukraine or “illegal immigrants” than to help victims of Hurricane Helene in the United States. They suggested that the girl was a victim of this hurricane.

It turns out that the photo is not real and appears to have been generated using artificial intelligence (AI). Graphic details and errors typical of AI tools are questionable. These are the girl's unnaturally smooth skin, exaggerated facial expressions, especially furrowed eyebrows. Also questionable are the blurred background and the fact that the man in the orange life jacket on the boat in the background appears to be missing one hand.

The alleged photo appears to have been taken in the rain – this is indicated by the splashes of raindrops on the surface of muddy water. Meanwhile, the hair on the girl's head looks completely dry and fluffy. Only the hair at the level of her face looks wet and clumps together. If it was actually raining, the girl's hair should also be wet on the top of her head. Such inconsistencies, violating the laws of physics or nature, are also characteristic of AI.

To analyze the graphics, Snopes used the publicly available True Media tool, which allows you to check whether a photo or video was created using AI-based tools. WITH analysis resultsthat there is “substantial evidence” of graphic manipulation and that it was created using generative artificial intelligence.

The image shows signs typical of AI-generated visualizations, such as unusual facial expressions and proportions, as well as smooth and perfect textures that may not occur naturally. The overall look and feel suggests it may have been generated or manipulated.”

Our graphics analysis with a similar tool Hive Moderation confirms this assessment. According to Hive Moderation, the chance that the graphics were created using AI-based tools is 99.9%. Most likely using DALL-E software, created by OpenAI. Generates images based on the provided text description.