A post shared on X claims that an image of a burned Israeli baby is generated by artificial intelligence.

Verdict: False

The images are not artificially generated. Images of burnt Israeli civilians have been published.

Fact Check:

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing more than 1,000 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, according to the Times of Israel. The group took hostages, including women and children, The Washington Post reported.

Social media users have been claiming that images of burnt Israeli children are AI generated. One user wrote, “Holy sh*t The image that Ben Shapiro tried to pass off as a ‘burnt baby corpse’ was an AI-generated fake image!”

The image, however, is not AI-generated. The original image was released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office and published on the official X account of Israel, alongside other images, according to the Times of Israel. The White House reportedly said it had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the images, Reuters reported. (RELATED: Video Claiming Showing Israeli Missile Attack On Gaza Predates The Current Conflict)

Check Your Fact also ran the image through several AI image detectors, such as Hive Moderation and Hugging Face. These AI detection tools said that the images were created by humans, not AI. Furthermore, the tool used by users to cast doubt on the image’s authenticity, AI or Not, has had trouble detecting images created by humans before, according to Peta Pexel.

Check Your Fact also ran the image through WeVerify’s verification plug-in, a tool that helps people track the origins of images and videos, along with analyzing images to see if they are forgeries. Check Your Fact did not find any indications that the image was altered. The fact-checking team at Provereno, a Russian-language outlet based in Estonia, also confirmed that the image was not altered.

Other images of burned Israeli civilians, including one that appears to show a young child, have been published by the South First Responders, a Telegram channel run by Israeli first responders. Check Your Fact is not linking to the Telegram channel due to the graphic nature of images available, but the video and images published by the group have been cited by credible media outlets such as Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.