AI-Generated Image of Violent Protests Near Eiffel Tower in Paris Shared as Real

Tools that help detect AI-generated visuals stated that the image was "AI-generated".

Fact-check: An AI-generated image of destruction near Eiffel Tower in France's Paris is being linked to the recent violent protests.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image showing a crowded, wrecked, smoke-engulfed street near Eiffel Tower in Paris is going viral on social media to claim that it shows the 'destruction caused by rioters' in France.

This comes after the country witnessed several days of violent protests after the police allegedly shot and killed a 17-year-old for driving a car without a license.

An archive can be seen here.

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

Is this image real?: No, this image was created using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

• Besides, we looked at streets around Eiffel Tower and were unable to find any street that looked like the viral image.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran the image through several tools which help detect AI-generated visuals.

• The results obtained on Optic AIornot, Hugging Face and Hive Moderation stated that this image was most likely AI-generated and not real.

Results on Optic AIornot said that this image is generated by AI.

Results on Hive Moderation said that this image is 99.2% generated by AI.

Results on Hugging Face said that this image is 68% generated by AI.

Discrepancies in the AI-image: In this viral image, we noticed several discrepancies which proved that this is not a real image.

• Some figurines of people can be seen standing in middle of the fire on the right side of the image (marked in red circle).

• The street lamp seen on the left looks half-cut (marked in yellow circle).

Discrepancies noticed in the AI-image.

Other things that didn't add up: The image also shows a damaged street but we found no reports or visuals about any such incident from in Paris.

• We also checked Google Earth and Google Maps' street view to find similar street and building with the exact same view of the Eiffel Tower as seen in the viral image but found none.

Conclusion: An AI-generated image of destruction near the Eiffel Tower in France's Paris is being linked to the recent violent protests.

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