Did Mexico's president wear ‘Make America Mexicana Again' hat? No, that's AI
A Jan. 18 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) appears to show Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wearing a red hat with the slogan 'Make America Mexicana Again.'
'This is hysterical,' reads text above the image. 'The President of Mexico was spotted wearing a 'Make America Mexicana Again' (hat).'
The post was liked more than 27,000 times in about two weeks. Similar posts were shared on X and Threads.
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The image was generated by artificial intelligence. The uncropped image contains a watermark that indicates it was made with AI, and an AI detection tool determined the image was fabricated.
In early January, Sheinbaum responded to then-President-elect Donald Trump's suggestion that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the 'Gulf of America" by proposing that the U.S. be renamed "Mexican America."
But the image in the Instagram post isn't real. It was created with Grok, X's AI chatbot, which can be used for 'question answering, information retrieval, creative writing, image generation and coding assistance,' according to xAI's website.
The logo that indicates the image was made by Grok is cropped out of the Instagram post but still appears in other versions of the image posted on X.
Fact check: No, Mexico's president did not make statement about 'sending felons' to US
Hive Moderation's AI detection tool determined the image is 99.7% likely to be AI-generated. Nothing similar to the image appears on Sheinbaum's social media accounts, and no credible news reports mention her wearing such a hat.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters also debunked the claim.
USA TODAY, Jan. 8, 'Mexican America:' Mexico's president offers a new name in response to Donald Trump
xAI, accessed Feb. 6, What is Grok?
@lfsono, Jan. 8, X post
Callo, Jan. 8, X post
Roi Lopez Rivas, Jan. 8, X post
Hive Moderation, Feb. 5, AI detection results
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USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Image of Claudia Sheinbaum in red hat made with AI | Fact check
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