According to AI experts, the image of Kamala Harris’ rally does show signs of heavy editing, although it was likely done using basic filters rather than AI.
Donald Trump caused a stir over the weekend after claiming the photo had been “manipulated” by artificial intelligence (AI) to increase the size of the crowd around Harris in Michigan and emphasize her popularity.
The former president and some of his online supporters pointed out that it was unusual that there was no reflection of the crowd on the plane’s turbine, suggesting the image had been manipulated.
DailyMail.com spoke to several tech experts who ran the image through software that checks for evidence of AI manipulation. They concluded that there was only a four percent chance that the image had been distorted using the software.
But it’s possible the photo was heavily filtered and edited, they said. And the plane’s curved reflective surface also creates an illusion where objects above and below the surface are most visible, dominating the reflection, they added.
The former president and his right-wing supporters pointed out that the lack of a crowd reflected in the belly of the craft is evidence of manipulation, but experts told DailyMail.com that this is because people are further away than what is observed.
Experts compared the lack of people in the plane’s reflection to the same illusion created by The Bean sculpture in Chicago, where hordes of tourists can stand directly in front of the sculpture, but the skyscrapers and sidewalk dominate the image in the reflection.
Professor Hany Farid of the University of California analyzed the photo using two models trained to detect patterns from generative AI.
“Neither model found any evidence of manipulation,” he said, but admitted that “after comparing different versions of this photo, I believe the only alteration was simple brightness/contrast and perhaps sharpening.”
Professor Farid explained that with a curved reflective surface, such as the fuselage of the plane, ‘objects above and below the surface are most visible and dominate the reflection’, such as the sky and the tarmac.
“Objects that are further away and more centered are compressed and less visible,” such as a crowd standing directly in front of the plane.
He compared it to the illusion created by the sculpture The Bean in Chicago, where large groups of tourists stand directly in front of it, but the skyscrapers and sidewalk in the reflection dominate the image.
John Renaud, Founder of AI Image Verification Tool Winston AIalso confirmed that the technician had not manipulated the image. He fed the image into his system and determined that it was “96 percent human.”
However, he admitted that the photo had likely been edited, which may have contributed to the general impression that there was something ‘off’ about the image.
AI expert Kartik Ahuja, founder of GrowthScribe, a marketing company specializing in AI, told DailyMail.com that the footage of the rally looked like it had been “edited and doctored by AI.”
He did not run the images through an AI detector.
AI experts have revealed that an image of Kamala Harris’ rally in Michigan may have been doctored, but not to the extent that Donald Trump claims. They suggested that the photo may have been edited to add brightness and contrast
Trump shared his claims on Truth Social this weekend, calling Harris a “fraud” for using AI to fill what he said was an empty airport.
“Did anyone notice Kamala CHEATING at the airport?” he wrote. “There was no one on the plane, and she “AI’d” it, showing a huge “crowd” of so-called followers, BUT THEY DID NOT EXIST!”
“She’s a CHEAT. She had NO ONE waiting and the ‘crowd’ seemed like 10,000 people!” he continued. “The same thing happens with her fake ‘crowd’ at her speeches.”
“This is how Democrats win elections,” Trump argued. “She should be disqualified because creating a false image is ELECTION INTRUSION.”
“Anyone who does that is cheating on EVERYTHING!”
Other Republicans have made similar claims. Commentator Dinesh D’Souza, for example, told his followers to “check the reflection on the plane.”
The former president mocked his opponent on Truth Social as a ‘fraud’
“Does this look like a real photo to you?” he asked on Saturday.
Another X user also claimed that ‘if you look closely at the paint job on the plane, you’ll notice that the crowd of people isn’t reflected in the paint.
“Her audience is fake. Her voters are fake. Her marriage is fake. Her political career is fake,” the X user wrote.
Some social media users pointed out the hands and fingers of people in the crowd, which they said appeared distorted in the image
Trump shared his claims on Truth Social this weekend, calling Harris a “fraud” for using AI to fill what he called an empty airport
‘In Harris’s photo it looks like the crowd is very close to the plane, but I suspect they are far enough away for this effect to be noticeable.
‘A second problem is that it appears to be rotated flat relative to the viewer. And because the camera is so far away, even a small rotation of the reflective surface will cause the reflected surface to move significantly.’
Some social media users pointed out the hands and fingers of people in the crowd, which they said looked distorted in the image.
AI struggles to create images of real hands, causing them to become longer or have too many fingers.
This phenomenon occurs because AI looks for patterns to generate images.
The system can recognize patterns of people with hands, and it can determine that hands have fingers, but it doesn’t know that a certain number of fingers is needed.
There is a part of the image that resembles a deformed hand.
“At first glance, it looks like the person’s head in the front continues into the person’s arm in the back,” Farid explains.
“What’s happening here is a coincidental alignment of the person’s bracelet. Look at this higher resolution image.”