Many people on social media appear to have been fooled by an AI-generated picture that supposedly shows a group of teachers protesting against the removal of pride flags from their classrooms.
The image shows a group of four women standing in a classroom holding a sign that reads: “If you make us take the pride flags out of our classrooms we will quit teaching!”
The picture isn’t real. It contains an invisible SynthID watermark that shows it was made using Google’s AI tools.
Hundreds of people have commented on a Facebook post sharing the photo suggesting they believe it’s genuine, despite a number of visual clues in the photo that indicate it has been fabricated.
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One comment reads “good keep your ideology out of the classrooms” while another says “get gone then, and take your flags with you”.
Clues in the image that it is AI-generated include an alphabet chart on the wall behind the teachers which misses out the letters ‘a’ and ‘i’. The image also contains nonsense text, including the label “Parenits Lesnchie” in the background and the classroom expectations for children being “Working ispoes” and “chivity”.
Other AI mistakes include the apparent schedule on the whiteboard which lists 9am twice for ‘Room’ and ‘Handloags’, and plans the time ‘5pm’ at 10am.
Before sharing content like this, first consider whether it comes from a verifiable and trustworthy source. Our guide to spotting AI content, and toolkit on how to identify bad information, can help you do this.