This photo shows how much Artificial Intelligence is now capable of influencing public opinion and sending political messages.
For the past two days, a purported photograph of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, 51, has been circulating on the Internet. It shows the activist imprisoned in Britain with a swollen face and closed eyes. He is sitting in a tiled room, looking exhausted and wearing a kind of bib that shows the stains of leftover food.
Reactions to the photo were swift and fierce. Many users expressed dismay that Assange was being held „in such conditions,“ including journalists and politicians. Individual tweets were viewed by over three million users.
One striking feature of the photo is that it bears a watermark with the words „Photo Property of E,“ indicating the author. This is a person who calls himself „The Errant Friend“ or „E“ on the Internet and already had a similar photo of Assange created by AI two weeks ago. The account has also posted artificially generated images of former U.S. President Donald Trump (76). Trump even spread them on his social media account.
Few users point out the possibility of artificial intelligence and abnormalities in the photo. Tools that are able to identify AI in images give clear indications of a fake.
Julian Assange's wife Stella (40), a Swedish-Spanish lawyer, says when asked by BILD that the photo is a fake produced with the help of AI. The largest French TV station TF1 also classifies it as fake.
On Saturday evening „The Errant Friend“ answered BILD and confirmed: Yes, the photo was produced by him. His explanation: „My intention was to create an image based on the documented happenings around julian. After his arrest, he was basically barred from public appearance, including at his own trials. This means the public is unable to witness what has been done to him, but there is evidence of his decline mentally and physically. I sought, through this image, to create something that put people into a moral quandary. What does the public do when they can actively see that state of being? If we were to unerase his face.“
„The Errant Friend“ tells BILD he used the program MidJourneys to produce the photo. „It was designed to evoke a visceral response and to accurately represent what the public could not otherwise bear witness to. I felt it important to give Julians plight a more human face, the face the Intelligence Community has worked overtime to erase.“
Julian Assange is currently being held in London's Belmarsh prison. He is to be extradited to the U.S., where he is charged with espionage and the publication of hundreds of thousands of secret documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange is seen by his supporters as a hero who has enlightened the public about war crimes. Critics accuse him of recklessly endangering the lives of countless people by disclosing stolen information, including whistleblowers living in repressive regimes who have had to rely on their identities remaining protected. His closeness to Russia has also been criticized: In 2016, Assange had disseminated material about U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that likely came from Russian intelligence.
If convicted, Assange faces 175 years in prison.