Artificial intelligence experts say the image of Kamala Harris’s rally shows signs of being heavily edited, though this was likely done using basic filters rather than artificial intelligence.
Donald Trump caused a stir over the weekend after claiming the image had been manipulated using artificial intelligence to boost the size of Harris’ crowd in Michigan and exaggerate her popularity.
The former president and some of his online supporters pointed to the crowd’s unusual lack of reflection on the plane’s turbine as evidence that the image had been manipulated.
DailyMail.com spoke to several technology experts who analysed the image using software that looks for evidence of AI manipulation. They concluded there was only a four per cent chance it had been manipulated by software.
But the photo may have been heavily filtered and edited, they said. And the plane’s curved reflective surface also creates an illusion in which objects above and below the surface are more visible and dominate the reflection, they added.
The former president and his right-wing supporters pointed to the lack of a crowd reflected in the belly of the ship as evidence of tampering, but experts told DailyMail.com that is because the crowd is further away than perceived.
Experts compared the lack of people in the plane’s reflection to the same illusion created by The Bean sculpture in Chicago, where crowds of tourists may be standing directly in front of it but skyscrapers and the sidewalk dominate the image in the reflection.
Professor Hany Farid of the University of California analyzed the photo with two models trained to detect generative AI patterns.
“No evidence of manipulation was found on any of the models,” he said, but admitted that after “comparing several versions of this photo, I believe the only alteration was a bit of brightness/contrast and perhaps sharpening.”
Professor Farid explained that on a curved mirror surface like the body of the aircraft, “objects above and below the surface are the most visible and dominate the reflection,” such as the sky and the asphalt.
“Objects that are farther away and more centered are compressed and less visible,” such as crowds directly in front of the plane.
He compared it to the illusion created by The Bean sculpture in Chicago, where crowds of tourists can be standing directly in front of it, yet the skyscrapers and sidewalk dominate the image in the reflection.
John Renaud, founder of the AI-powered image verification tool Winston AIHe also confirmed that the image was not manipulated by the technician after running it on his system, which he determined was “96 percent human.”
But he admitted that the photo had likely been edited, which may have contributed to the overall impression that something seems “off” with the image.
Kartik Ahuja, an AI expert and founder of GrowthScribe, a marketing firm specialising in AI, told DailyMail.com that the footage from the rally looked like “a combination of AI manipulation and editing”.
He didn’t run the images through an AI detector.
Artificial intelligence experts have revealed that the image of Kamala Harris’ rally in Michigan may have been edited, but not to the extent claimed by Donald Trump. They suggested that the photo could have been edited to add brightness and contrast.
Trump shared his claims on Truth Social this weekend, calling Harris a “cheater” for using artificial intelligence to fill what he said was an empty airport.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” he wrote. “There was no one on the plane, and she did it by mistake and showed a massive crowd of supposed supporters, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!”
“It’s a TRAP. There was no one waiting for her and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people,” he continued. “The same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches.”
“This is how Democrats win elections,” Trump argued. “She should be disqualified because creating a false image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
‘Anyone who does that is cheating at ANYTHING!’
Other Republicans have made similar claims: commentator Dinesh D’Souza told his followers to “check the reflection in the plane.”
The former president mocked his opponent on Truth Social by calling him a ‘cheater’
“Does this look like a real photo to you?” he asked on Saturday.
Another X user also stated that “if you look closely at the painting of the plane, you will notice that the crowd is not reflected in the painting.
“His audience is fake. His voters are fake. His marriage is fake. His political career is fake,” wrote user X.
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 “cheater” for using artificial intelligence to fill what he said was an empty airport.
‘In the case of Harris’ photo, the crowd appears to be very close to the plane, but I suspect they are far enough away for this effect to occur.
‘A second problem is that the plane appears to be rotated relative to the viewer, and since the camera is so far away, even a small rotation of the reflecting surface will cause what is reflected to move significantly.’
Some social media users pointed out the hands and fingers of people in the crowd, which they said appeared distorted in the image.
AI struggles to produce proper hand images, making them too long or with too many fingers.
This phenomenon occurs because AI uses pattern searching to generate images.
It can detect the pattern of people having hands, and that hands have fingers, but it doesn’t know that there needs to be a particular number of fingers.
There is a part of the image that looks like a deformed hand.
“At first glance, it looks as if the head of the person in front continues through the arm of the person behind,” Farid explained.
“What’s happening here is a coincidental alignment of the person’s bracelet. Check out this higher resolution image.”
