Claim:
A photo authentically shows a crowd greeting Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz at an Aug. 7, 2024, rally at Detroit Metro Airport.
Rating:
True ( About this rating? )
Context:
The photo was real and, according to the Harris-Walz campaign, taken by a staff member. The campaign said it had not digitally manipulated the photo or used AI to create it. That said, it did appear that the version of the image that later went viral had been slightly manipulated to exaggerate its brightness and contrast.
In early August 2024, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate in the 2024 presidential election, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, campaigned in several battleground states, including Michigan. Shortly after they landed for a rally in Detroit on Aug. 7, many social media users posted what they claimed to be a photo from the event — an image that purportedly depicted a large crowd with Air Force 2 in the background.
The photo also circulated on Facebook and Reddit . Some users seemed to believe the image was digitally altered (that is, someone took a real photo of the event and added or changed elements using software like Photoshop) or the product of artificial-intelligence (AI) software . One user commented under an X post, "You can tell it's photoshopped." Another commented under a different post, "Lol you can tell it's a straight up AI image."
On Aug. 11, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that the image had been, as he put it, "A.I.'d" to make it appear there was a "massive 'crowd' of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST!"
(@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)
That was not the case, however. AI-detection software said it was highly unlikely the photo was created with AI. Moreover, other photographic and video evidence corroborated the large crowd size , and, according to the BBC, the Harris-Walz campaign confirmed that the original photograph was real and taken by a member of its staff.
What We Know About the Image
In many AI-generated images, people appear to have nonhuman characteristics, such as extra or too-few fingers, or unrecognizable facial features. We didn't see evidence of that in the photo.
Nevertheless, we scanned the image through two online AI-detection tools. The first, Winston AI Image Detector , determined the image was "96% human" — or, that it was likely photographed by someone and not created using an AI-generation tool. The results were as follows:
(Winston AI)
Isitai.com , another detection tool, described the image as "somewhat likely human generated," estimating a 58% chance that it's not AI.
(isitai.com)
Our early attempts to determine the origin of the image via a reverse-image search . did not yield much usable evidence. Political strategist Rachel Bitecofer, who appeared to be one of the first social media users to share the image, told Snopes she did not attend the event and was "not sure" where she got the photo online.
We found many photos that depicted a similar scene at the Detroit Metro Airport in The Associated Press' image archive. For example, an image by photojournalist Carlos Osorio shows a similar angle of the crowd, though with different lighting. We reached out to the AP to get in contact with Osorio to learn more. In the AP photos and other media , a roof hangar gives a shadow over the crowd — in other words, part of the crowd that's closer to the aircraft is visible and the people underneath the roof are not as easy to see. Also, many supporters were recorded holding campaign signs, just like the in-question image.
By zooming in on some of the phone screens in the image, you can see what appears to be the plane and crowd — in other words, the phones seem to show people recording what's in front of them. In the image below, you can see the fin of the plane on the attendee's phone:
(X user @RachelBitecofer)
The BBC reported on Aug. 12 that the original photo (shown in the tweet below) was, in fact, genuine and taken by a Harris-Walz campaign staffer, as confirmed by a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign. The campaign also said the photo had not been manipulated or created with AI tools.
As noted by photographer Patrick Witty, the differences between the original image and the version so widely shared on social media suggested that someone had slightly cropped it and increased the color warmth and contrast before resharing it.
Have more information on this image? Send us a tip .
Sources:
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p2nj9GtfgQ . Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.
AP. https://newsroom.ap.org/editorial-photos-videos/search?query=Air%20Force%20Two%20with%20Democratic%20presidential%20nominee%20Vice%20President%20Kamala%20Harris%20and%20her%20running%20mate%20Minnesota%20Gov.%20Tim%20Walz%20aboard%20arrive%20for%20a%20campaign%20rally%20Wednesday,%20Aug.%207,%202024,%20in%20Romulus,%20Mich.%20&mediaType=photo&st=keyword . Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.
" Https://Isitai.Com/Ai-Image-Detector/." Is It AI?, https://isitai.com/ai-image-detector/. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.
Login | Winston AI. https://app.gowinston.ai/login . Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.
Watson, Kathryn, and Caitlin Yilek. In First Rally with Walz, Harris Praises Him as Leader to Help Unite the Nation - CBS News. 7 Aug. 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamala-harris-vp-tim-walz-philadelphia-rally/ .
Busby, Mattha. "First Thing: Thousands Rally for Harris and Walz in Wisconsin and Michigan." The Guardian, 8 Aug. 2024. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/08/first-thing-thousands-rally-for-harris-and-walz-in-wisconsin-and-michigan .
Updates:
Aug. 12, 2024: This article has been updated with new information and the rating changed from "unproven" to "true."
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