India-Pakistan conflict: AI-generated or edited fake satellite images flood social media
The weapons have fallen silent but the image war rages on. From May 6 to 10, India and Pakistan engaged in military clashes following a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22. Pakistan claims to have destroyed several pieces of equipment at Indian military bases, but India denounces disinformation and says it successfully hit Pakistani military installations.
On X, Pakistani and Indian internet users have been sharing alleged satellite images to illustrate the damage purportedly inflicted by their respective armies. But several of these images are fake.
An AI-enhanced hangar photo
On May 12, an Indian account posted a satellite image on X supposedly showing the aftermath of an Indian strike. The remarkably clear image prompted admiration. 'The picture is so sharp that it looks like it was taken with a drone. Indian satellites are very powerful,' a Facebook account commented.
According to another commenter, the photo allegedly shows a hangar at Pakistan's Bholari airbase destroyed by the Indian military.
But this photo is partly fake: it has been altered by artificial intelligence.
Thanks to a reverse image search (click here to find out how), we were able to find the origin of this image on a Reddit forum. The user who shared the image confirms that AI was used to enhance a satellite image of the strike.
A hangar at Pakistan's Bholari airbase was indeed partially damaged. Our team obtained a satellite image showing the base on May 11 from Maxar. This image shows damage to the hangar's roof. However, this satellite image has notable differences compared to the photograph shared on X, which confirms that the latter was generated by AI.
Compared to the original photograph, the image shared on X shows several inconsistencies. A low wall located on the left side of the hangar has disappeared, and the roof patterns do not match. The roof strips are arranged horizontally on the left side, while they are positioned vertically on the right side. In the image provided by Maxar, the hangar is visible from a distance. The AI-generated image, on the other hand, is a close-up of the hangar, likely in an attempt to show the damage caused by the Indian strike in a more dramatic way.
Fake craters at Jammu base in India
On May 11, a pro-Pakistan online user posted a satellite image purportedly showing damage caused by Pakistani forces on India's Jammu airbase, in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.
This image was supposedly taken after Pakistani strikes. It depicts a series of six craters on the airport's runway and adjacent buildings.
However, the open-source intelligence analyst Aurora Intel showed how this satellite image has been graphically altered to add damage.
An image taken on May 11 by the Sentinel-2 satellite shows that the Indian airbase is actually intact. None of the six craters visible in the image shared on X appear on the Sentinel-2 image, which was taken the day after the alleged Pakistani strikes.
Destruction of Indian S-400 missile battery? Image is doctored
Following the alleged loss of one or several Rafale fighter jets, India has allegedly lost another piece of advanced military equipment: a battery of the S-400 missile, the Indian army's most sophisticated air defence system. This claim comes from pro-Pakistan internet users who posted a satellite image of India's Adampur airbase in Punjab.
Two craters can be seen in this image, which garnered over a million views on X. These craters are being presented as proof of the battery's destruction.
As open-source intelligence Damien Symon points out, the satellite image has been doctored. No sign of a crater is visible on an image of the Adampur base taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite on May 11, after the ceasefire.
The Pakistani army has officially claimed the destruction of an S-400 missile battery in Adampur. However, satellite images presented during a briefing on May 12 show no visible signs of damage. For his part, the Indian government press service stated that Pakistan's claim was 'fake' and 'baseless'.
On May 13, the Indian government released a video of a speech held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Adampur base. In the background, the intact tubes of an S-400 missile launcher can be seen.
A number of Indian media outlets have presented this video as sufficient proof to invalidate Pakistani claims. However, accounts supporting the Pakistani army have countered that this presentation of the facts was misleading.
They argue that the Pakistani forces never claimed to have destroyed the S-400 missiles themselves, but only their radars. So far, however, the Pakistani government has provided no visual and independently verifiable evidence of any such destruction.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Hey chatbot, is this true? AI 'factchecks' sow misinformation
With tech platforms reducing human fact-checkers, users are increasingly relying on AI-powered chatbots -- including xAI's Grok, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's Gemini -- in search of reliable information. "Hey @Grok, is this true?" has become a common query on Elon Musk's platform X, where the AI assistant is built in, reflecting the growing trend of seeking instant debunks on social media. But the responses are often themselves riddled with misinformation. Grok -- now under renewed scrutiny for inserting "white genocide," a far-right conspiracy theory, into unrelated queries -- wrongly identified old video footage from Sudan's Khartoum airport as a missile strike on Pakistan's Nur Khan airbase during the country's recent conflict with India. Unrelated footage of a building on fire in Nepal was misidentified as "likely" showing Pakistan's military response to Indian strikes. "The growing reliance on Grok as a fact-checker comes as X and other major tech companies have scaled back investments in human fact-checkers," McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard, told AFP. "Our research has repeatedly found that AI chatbots are not reliable sources for news and information, particularly when it comes to breaking news," she warned. 'Fabricated' NewsGuard's research found that 10 leading chatbots were prone to repeating falsehoods, including Russian disinformation narratives and false or misleading claims related to the recent Australian election. In a recent study of eight AI search tools, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University found that chatbots were "generally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn't answer accurately, offering incorrect or speculative answers instead." When AFP fact-checkers in Uruguay asked Gemini about an AI-generated image of a woman, it not only confirmed its authenticity but fabricated details about her identity and where the image was likely taken. Grok recently labeled a purported video of a giant anaconda swimming in the Amazon River as "genuine," even citing credible-sounding scientific expeditions to support its false claim. In reality, the video was AI-generated, AFP fact-checkers in Latin America reported, noting that many users cited Grok's assessment as evidence the clip was real. Such findings have raised concerns as surveys show that online users are increasingly shifting from traditional search engines to AI chatbots for information gathering and verification. The shift also comes as Meta announced earlier this year it was ending its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, turning over the task of debunking falsehoods to ordinary users under a model known as "Community Notes," popularized by X. Researchers have repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of "Community Notes" in combating falsehoods. 'Biased answers' Human fact-checking has long been a flashpoint in a hyperpolarized political climate, particularly in the United States, where conservative advocates maintain it suppresses free speech and censors right-wing content -- something professional fact-checkers vehemently reject. AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking program, including in Asia, Latin America, and the European Union. The quality and accuracy of AI chatbots can vary, depending on how they are trained and programmed, prompting concerns that their output may be subject to political influence or control. Musk's xAI recently blamed an "unauthorized modification" for causing Grok to generate unsolicited posts referencing "white genocide" in South Africa. When AI expert David Caswell asked Grok who might have modified its system prompt, the chatbot named Musk as the "most likely" culprit. Musk, the South African-born billionaire backer of President Donald Trump, has previously peddled the unfounded claim that South Africa's leaders were "openly pushing for genocide" of white people. "We have seen the way AI assistants can either fabricate results or give biased answers after human coders specifically change their instructions," Angie Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, told AFP. "I am especially concerned about the way Grok has mishandled requests concerning very sensitive matters after receiving instructions to provide pre-authorized answers."
Euronews
6 days ago
- Euronews
EU Commission probes four porn websites amid concern for minors
The European Commission has begun investigating porn platforms Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos for suspected breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA) the EU's online platform rules, related to protection of minors. These include risks that age verification measures deployed by the sites are ineffective. The Commission has already found on the basis of mandatory reports and requests for information that the companies didn't put appropriate and proportionate measures in place to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, in particular with age verification tools to safeguard minors from adult content. Nor did the sites carry out risk assessments or mitigate for negative effects on the rights of children, or use appropriate age verification tools to prevent minors from accessing adult content, the Commission said. Protecting young users online is one of the key enforcement priorities under the DSA. The Commission has launched several probes into protection of minors under the platform rules, including into Meta's Facebook and Instagram. The DSA entered into force for the first batch of the largest online platforms in 2023, including Facebook, TikTok, X and Amazon. The Commission brought porn platforms under the ambit of the rules which affect very large online platforms (or VLOPS) after they broke the threshold of 45 million average monthly users. It currently designates 25 platforms as VLOPs, and has also begun investigating breaches of the DSA by Temu, X, TikTok and Meta. None of the probes have been wrapped up yet. For the probes it began on Tuesday, the Commission worked together with the member states, through the European Board for Digital Services, which together launched a coordinated action to protect minors as regards pornographic content on smaller platforms. The national authorities are responsible for overseeing all the companies that fall below the 45 million average monthly user thresholds. The probes could be further expanded with other elements under the DSA, in the course of the investigation. Earlier this month, the Commission launched a public consultation on its draft guidelines on the protection of minors online, aimed to help online platforms to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for children online. Exams are often associated with pressure, long nights of cramming, and the desperate search for a comfortable spot to study. But what if you could leave all that behind and step away from distractions? A small island off the coast of Denmark - about a 30-minute boat ride away from Copenhagen - is offering the opportunity to do exactly that. Dubbed Ungdomsøen, or "The Youth Island" in English, the former naval fortress plays host to university students who are invited for a study retreat designed to help them concentrate on their coursework - and also give them room to breathe. The island is run by Ungdomsøen Foundation, an NGO that organises the study retreat for all students in the capital wanting to flee everyday life. Mina Kjeldsen, the project manager behind this initiative, says the motivation is to offer an accessible place for a wide range of students to focus on and help each other with their studies and exam preparations. "If it's hard to finish your exam and it's stressful, it's nice to feel like you're in it together," Kjeldsen added. According to Kjeldsen, the initiative brings together 20 to 40 students at a time for a couple of days of communal living, academic work, and structured downtime. Participants arrive by boat and are encouraged to completely disconnect from city life. The 70,000 m2 artificial island offers fresh air, open space, and a quiet rhythm that contrast sharply with the pace of student life on the mainland. "I've always heard a lot of criticism about finding new spots in Copenhagen to study. You get tired of one cafe because it's too busy, and then you go to another one and you get distracted and you can't be at your school because you're there every day," Sol Rem Rasmussen, one of the event hosts and a volunteer on Ungdomsøen, told Euronews Next. "You don't have the noise, you just have sun and blue sky and some nice places to study. It's not really an option to be stressed by your everyday life. You get to go away," Rasmussen added. During the day, students work on group projects, exam papers, and thesis drafts. Some of them came by themselves, others alongside their classmates. Andreas, an English Literature student, learned about the study retreat when he was stressed about his thesis and thought it was a "perfect opportunity" to distance himself from the city's distractions. He has set himself the ambitious goal of writing 15 to 20 pages of a draft of it while he's on the island. Angelyn, a prehistoric archaeology student, came back to participate for the second time as she believes being outside during breaks helps to refresh herself. "Also, we have to wake up at the same time and everything. So it kind of keeps you focused and you're just not lying in bed too long," she explained. "It's very different from sitting in the library with all the other students, stressing out. It's nice to have a place like this," Mareike, a Social Entrepreneurship and Management student from Roskilde University, told Euronews Next. According to environmental psychologists, the isolation that an environment like this island offers can actually help with stress management and focus for students. "One important aspect of regaining focus and being able to focus more effortlessly is to reduce the number of distractions by stepping out of your routine, stepping out of your normal environments to a place where there's not so much calling for your attention," Freddie Lymeus, a researcher in environmental psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden, told Euronews Next. Alongside peer-to-peer support, the retreat also offers professional supervision. Lecturers from Roskilde University were invited to provide one-on-one guidance to students working on longer projects or theses. "We have 45-minute sessions where students tell us about their research," Mette Apollo Rasmussen, a researcher at the university, told Euronews Next. "We get a chance to sit quietly down and get a bit into depth with the different students' research," she added. Researchers say the isolation of the island actually strengthens the writing process. "As researchers, we know that focus is really, really important… Here, you can't just leave. The boat only leaves tomorrow. So you're forced to stay within your process. When you get stuck, you take a break. But you stay with it. And you move forward," Maria Duclos Lindstrøm, another researcher at Roskilde University, added. The retreat balances intense academic focus with moments of relaxation and socialising. Evenings are spent cooking together, eating around shared tables, and sometimes winding down in a seaside sauna or taking a swim. The idea is to bring students into contact not just with their work, but with one another. "When you're also cooking dinner together and talking, you take that pressure off," Rasmussen said. "You see each other in other settings, and that helps people talk about the difficulties they're having with studying," they added. Organisers of this initiative believe this informal support system can be as important as any academic feedback. They say students often arrive not knowing each other, but leave with shared experiences and new perspectives. "We just had a conversation with a group who said it's actually really nice to talk to other people about how they feel about the master thesis, because very often we don't discuss how we feel," Lindstrøm said. Participants sleep in dorms or outdoor shelters and have the option to spend most of their time outdoors while studying, walking, and resting. "What I'm looking forward to is definitely sleeping outside, but also studying at the same time," Mattias, a product development and technical integration student at Copenhagen School of Design and Technology, told Euronews Next. Lymeus says it's encouraging to see those types of initiatives. "It has to be understood from the background that university students, given their socioeconomic backgrounds and demographics, are generally much more unhealthy in a psychological sense than they should be," Lymeus said. He says contact with nature, especially combined with group activities, is one of the solutions. "A large amount of research conducted over several decades supports the idea that when we are in contact with nature, we tend to reduce stress levels, regain creativity and concentration, improve mood, creativity and openness and many other good things that will help a person perform in studies as well," he added. The retreat is organised by young volunteers who live on the island for a year, hosting visitors and developing projects aimed at young people's growth and participation. They hope that, in this setting, students not only work on their exams but also on how they relate to learning and each other. "We bring our own values," said Rasmussen. "We focus on diversity and making space for everyone to feel comfortable. That's part of the room we create here". The vision of Ungdomsøen, which receives funding from the Copenhagen municipality and Danish companies, is to 'help young people discover what they can achieve when focus, collaboration, and community come together' by creating a temporary space away from everyday life. It offers more than 20 bedrooms in a massive building that was used as accommodation for the Danish Navy. The building was renovated when the island opened to young people in Denmark in 2019. The artificial island was built in 1894 as a military fort. At the time of its completion, it was considered the largest sea fort in the world and remains the largest manmade island without an abutment. While initiatives like this study retreat are commendable, Lymeus says, it could be costly to implement for other cities and universities. "Another way of approaching it could be to work with reconstructing or reinventing the environments that we're living and working in to be generally more supportive of this type of thing," said Lymeus. "I think it's a very interesting and commendable initiative. And many universities could probably do more in terms of also using the spaces that they already have". For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
France 24
23-05-2025
- France 24
German court says Meta can use user data to train AI
The higher regional court in Cologne concluded Meta, which owns both social media platforms, had not violated European Union law. "Meta is pursuing a legitimate end by using the data to train artificial intelligence systems," the court said in a statement. Feeding user data into AI training systems was allowed "even without the consent of those affected", it added. Meta has announced plans to begin training AI models with data from Facebook and Instagram from Tuesday. The court said the balance of interests between the parties was in favour of allowing Meta to process user data to develop AI. The training of AI systems "cannot be achieved by other equally effective, less intrusive means", the court said. Among the reasons cited by judges was Facebook's intention to only use publicly available data that could also be found via search. Meta had also "taken effective measures to significantly mitigate the impact" on users, the court said, including communicating the plans via its mobile apps. The North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre, which brought the case, said it still found the use of user data "highly problematic". "There are still considerable doubts about the legality," the organisation's chief, Wolfgang Schuldzinski, said in a statement. The Vienna-based privacy campaign group Noyb said last week it had sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta over the plans to use user data for AI training. The letter was the first step ahead of a possible injunction request or class-action lawsuit against Meta, the group said.
