X, formerly known as Twitter, has been the source of many viral photos that circulate online. One user decided to post what looked like a photo from the late 80s, but a close look would tell you that the image was actually created using AI.
AI-Generated Photo Becomes Viral Again
It's always fascinating to see photos from decades ago, showing us what living then was like. It's a known fact that smoking was not always prohibited inside establishments, and the photo is just what that looked like.
The person who posted the photo captioned: "Peak male specimen at McDonald's. 1989." As it turns out, it was not a real picture taken in the late 80s after all. It was merely created using AI, and there are pretty obvious signs if you know where to look.
For one, his fingers look peculiar, which seems to be one of the most common signs that an image is AI-generated. One can't tell where his wrist ends and where his hand begins as it looks like one straight arm with four fingers.
Of course, that's only one of the many inconsistencies that separate this photo from reality. Even the food containers are unusual. The box for the fries seems to be taller than it should be, and while it had an accurate logo for the fast food chain, it is predominantly yellow.
There's also a straw sticking out of the box, as pointed out by Gizmodo, which as far as the majority of consumers are concerned, is not needed to eat fries. Even X users tried to point out more inconsistencies that tell why the photo is fake.
Instead of the "McDonald's," the logo says "Modlidani." There's no such food chain named that way, and looking into the history of McDonald's, it's quite easy to guarantee that it was never named Modlidani at any point or any place.
You might also notice the man behind the main subject of the image. At first look, it appears that he is wearing a bucket hat, but the shape of the front also looks like it was meant to be a baseball cap. Let's not forget how the sunglasses made it look like he had big alien-like eyes.
The Line Between Harmless, Harmful Deepfakes
The photo posted by the X user could be innocent enough, given that the user never explicitly said that it was a real photo taken back then. While there was an indicated year, it could just be to describe which era it was based on.
You could already tell based on the long curly locks and the very thick mustache, as well as the outfit that the "man" in the photo was wearing. Still, deepfakes are becoming a huge problem in social media, especially if they were made to spread misinformation.
This has especially been troubling with politics, as deepfakes are already considered a threat to the upcoming elections. One example would be the deepfake robocall in US President Joe Biden's voice, discouraging voters from coming to the polls before an election took place.
