AI-generated fakes flood social media during Khamenei's funeral
As Iran mourned former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, AI-generated videos and photos claiming to show the event spread widely, many containing errors and exaggerated crowds.
Iran witnessed massive crowds for the funeral procession of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, documented by international news agencies. But alongside genuine images, a wave of AI-generated videos and photos falsely claiming to depict the event has flooded social media.
Huge crowds gathered on Monday as Khamenei's coffin was carried through the capital after two days lying in state at the Grand Mosalla mosque. While verified images showed dense crowds, misleading AI-generated content began circulating widely.
One widely shared video by pro-regime accounts, viewed hundreds of thousands of times, claimed to show the "largest funeral in history." However, several clues indicate it was AI-generated. The Persian text was meaningless gibberish, and the mosque in the video had a white dome, whereas the actual Grand Mosalla has a blue dome—as confirmed by FRANCE 24's correspondent.
Another AI-generated image falsely claimed to show crowds around Tehran's Azadi Tower. OpenAI's image detection found a SynthID watermark, confirming it was created using their tools. The image also had geographical inconsistencies, including trees and buildings not present in recent satellite imagery of Azadi Square.
A separate AI-generated video, viewed over a million times, appears to show millions of mourners carrying Khamenei's coffin. But the footage contains common AI artefacts: distorted hands, unrealistic crowd movement, and a lack of distinct facial features.
Misleading content around major news events typically falls into three categories: old footage presented as new, genuine images taken out of context, or entirely AI-generated media. In Khamenei's funeral, much of the viral misinformation is synthetic.
