Image of a Thai police in glittering clothes with a handcuffed suspect turns out to be an AI fake

It was a captivating image and an irresistible story. A group of tough Thai police – five men and one woman – all dressed in elaborate festival clothing surround a drug dealer they had caught undercover.

The image released by local police was so compelling that it found its way onto the front page of Britain’s Daily Star as well as picture stories in the Telegraph, the Sun and the New York Post.

The Sun wrote: “The burly crew of five men and one woman donned skin-tight sequins and feathers for the covert mission in Thailand.” The Daily Star wrote: “The team of five men and one woman shared a photo on Facebook of themselves in frilly dresses with the stolen suspect.”

There was just one problem: The arrest was real, but the image was an AI-generated fake.