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Media Organisations Passed Off AI Images as Imran Khan Sitting in Jail

We found that the images were generated using AI tool 'Midjourney' and are not real images as claimed.

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Two pictures which show former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sitting inside a room is being shared with a claim that they were taken after Khan's arrest in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust Case.

Who all shared it?: Media organisations such as Times Now Navbharat, Aaj Tak, and Zee News shared the images with a similar claim.

(Swipe right to view all the claims.)

  • An archive of the post can be seen here.

    (Source: Times Now Navbharat/Screenshot)

Several social media users shared full length pictures on their accounts, and the archives of such posts can be found here, here, and here.

Are these claims true?: No, the images have been generated using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool called 'Midjourney'.

  • While Khan has been arrested, the visuals are not real making the viral claim misleading.

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What led us to the truth?: At first, we noticed the text which said "exclusive by midjourney" in both pictures uploaded on the internet.

(Swipe right to view all the images.)

  • The watermark can be seen in the image uploaded by Times Now Navbharat.

    (Source: Times Now Navbharat Twitter/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

What is Midjourney?: It is an AI tool which creates realistic images within seconds based on text prompts given by the user.

Other noticeable discrepancies: A closer look at this picture of Khan shows him having more than 6 toes in his leg.

  • Using the magnifier tool of InVID, a Google Chrome extension, we zoomed in to the hands of Khan. This showed that his hands seem to merge into each other.

  • It should be noted that the images generated by AI tools are sophisticated but not perfect.

  • There are some common discrepancies which are usually seen, such as irregular number of fingers, incomplete structure of objects, body parts merging into each other, and more.

  • The Quint has previously debunked several deepfakes which went viral as real images and some of them can be read here and here.

Conclusion: These images of former Pakistani PM Imran Khan sitting inside a room are AI-generated and not real ones as claimed.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

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