Fact Check: Pic Allegedly Showing '5 Dancing Israelis' on 9/11 Is AI-Generated Fake

Claim:

A picture titled "five dancing Israelis" authentically shows five shirtless men recording themselves waving an Israeli flag on 9/11 as the World Trade Center's twin towers burn in the background.

Rating:

Fake ( About this rating? )

In mid-August 2024, users on Elon Musk's X social media platform discussed a picture captioned "five dancing Israelis." The image purportedly showed five shirtless men celebrating with an Israeli flag against the backdrop of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the World Trade Center's twin towers filled the sky with fire and smoke.

For example, on Aug. 14, the user @Partisangirl shared the picture with the caption, " Never forget. Five dancing Israelis." As of this writing, that post ( archived ) had received 774,000 views, 3,300 reposts and 12,000 likes.

However, the truth was the image was not a real photo. A different user generated the image with an artificial-intelligence tool.

A user with the handle @CensoredMen posted ( archived ) the picture minutes earlier, referencing Musk's xAI Grok chatbot. The user wrote, "Grok AI generates pretty accurate images," implying that was the tool used to create the image.

Minutes later, the same user posted another AI-generated image of fire, smoke, ambulances with their lights on and blood running through streets. The foreground of the fake picture ( archived ) appeared to show Israeli soldiers holding an Israeli flag and a bloody certificate sarcastically displaying the words, "Most Moral Army."

BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh first reported the truth about the fake "five dancing Israelis" image in a post ( archived ) on X.

We sent a direct message via X to @CensoredMen to confirm whether the owner of the account created the fake picture central to this story. We also emailed @PartisanGirl to ask whether the owner of that account was aware the image was fake before sharing it. We will update this story if we receive any responses.

Another 'Chaotic' Rollout for Musk

On the same day users shared the two fake pictures, The Verge reported on the launch of Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, "two new models of its Grok chatbot that offer upgraded performance and new image-generation capabilities."

Five hours later, The Verge published a second article describing the rollout of the new models as just "as chaotic as everything else on Elon Musk's social network":

Subscribers to X Premium, which grants access to Grok, have been posting everything from Barack Obama doing cocaine to Donald Trump with a pregnant woman who (vaguely) resembles Kamala Harris to Trump and Harris pointing guns. With US elections approaching and X already under scrutiny from regulators in Europe, it's a recipe for a new fight over the risks of generative AI.

For further reading, we previously reported about a fake, AI-generated audio clip of former U.S. President Donald Trump saying Republicans are "the dumbest group of voters in the country."

Sources:

"Grok-2 Beta Release." x .ai , 13 Aug. 2024, https://x.ai/blog/grok-2 .

Robertson, Adi. "X's New AI Image Generator Will Make Anything from Taylor Swift in Lingerie to Kamala Harris with a Gun." The Verge , 14 Aug. 2024, https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220173/xai-grok-image-generator-misinformation-offensive-imges .

"September 11 Attacks | History, Summary, Location, Timeline, Casualties, & Facts." Britannica , https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks .

Weatherbed, Jess. "xAI's New Grok-2 Chatbots Bring AI Image Generation to X." The Verge , 14 Aug. 2024, https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220127/grok-ai-chatbot-beta-image-generation-x-xai-update .