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AI images of ousted Venezuelan leader Maduro spread rapidly despite safeguards

Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are escorted off a helicopter en route to the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Jan 5.

Venezuela’s ousted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores being escorted off a helicopter en route to the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Jan 5.

PHOTO: VINCENT ALBAN/NYTIMES

Stuart A. Thompson and Tiffany Hsu

NEW YORK - Just hours after news spread online that Mr Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s ousted president, was

arrested by US forces

, social media was overrun with photographs depicting him in handcuffs, escorted by drug enforcement agents or surrounded by soldiers on a military aircraft.

The images were fake – likely the product of artificial intelligence (AI) tools – in what experts said is one of the first times that AI imagery has depicted prominent figures while a historical moment was rapidly unfolding.

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Nicolas Maduro

Social media

AI/artificial intelligence

Deepfake