Fact Check: Ai-generated photos show 'sunburn competition in New Orleans'
Claim:
Photographs shared online in June 2025 authentically depicted a sunburn competition held in New Orleans.
Rating:
In early June 2025, a collage of four striking images allegedly captured during a "sunburn competition" in New Orleans wildly spread on social media.
As of this writing, one Facebook post (archived) showing photos of people with red-hot flesh reached over 64,000 reactions, 49,300 comments, and 24,000 shares.
https://www.facebook.com/Therealkiyaaa/posts/pfbid023aeJ6bQmfmzzM7b4md93PR3cXDQSaEfouLEFDaFhQKR9PD1kkNJ727d69WfBDf5bl
The collage also spread on social media platforms including X (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), TikTok (archived) and Reddit (archived).
"Sunburn competition in New Orleans, prize…$50 gift card to Target," one Threads user captioned the collage.
However, no evidence exists that such an event took place in New Orleans, or anywhere else in the world, in 2025. The photographs allegedly showing scenes from the purported sunburn competition displayed clear signs of being generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. Additionally, when the images first circulated in 2023, the original poster admitted to having created them using AI.
For these reasons, we have rated this claim as fake.
A reverse image search and a Google search for terms such as "Sunburn Competition in New Orleans" yielded no results from credible news outlets or local media. The only references to the event came from social media users reposting the same viral collage of four images.
(Google search results)
The images had several telltale signs of being generated using AI, including unnaturally smooth and plastic-like skin texture, distorted features such as deformed feet, and body parts that appeared to dissolve into the background.
(Facebook user TheRealkiyaaa/Snopes Illustration)
What's more, as seen in the image below, the facial features in the photos were noticeably distorted. For instance, one person's hair appeared to blend into their face, and the neck and skin of another displayed unnatural shapes and textures.
(Facebook user TheRealkiyaaa/Snopes Illustration)
Such visual anomalies are common indicators that an image was created, at least partially, with the use of AI software.
An analysis conducted with Hive, an AI-detection tool, determined with 98% certainty that the images were "likely to be AI-generated."
(Hive Moderation)
This wasn't the first time these images had gone viral. In late 2023, the exact same pictures circulated online with a different caption, suggesting they depicted a "sunburn competition" in Florida. At that time, multiple fact-checking organizations, including Reuters and Logically Facts, investigated the images and found that they were created using AI.
The organizations traced the origin of the photos to a Facebook group "Cursed AI," where users often post surreal or absurd AI-generated content for entertainment purposes.
Will Cartwright, a member of the "Cursed AI" group, confirmed to Logically Facts that he was the original creator of the images, saying, "Yes, I created the images and posted them to the Facebook group Cursed AI" and adding that he used Bing Image Creator.
"'Extreme competition' posts have been very common in the group, often of situations that would be very uncomfortable, which is what gave me the idea," he told Logically Facts, explaining he used a prompt along the lines of "people competing in an extreme sunburn competition in Florida" on Bing.
A partially archived version of the original post from Aug. 1, 2023, can be found via the Wayback Machine archiving tool (see screenshot below):
(Wayback Machine)
It remains unclear, however, who originally posted the collage in June 2025, stating it depicted a sunburn competition in New Orleans.
As of this writing, the "Cursed AI" Facebook group featured several similar "sunburn competition" posts from mid-2023, with clearly AI-generated images.
(Cursed AI Facebook group)
We have investigated numerous AI-generated images in the past. For instance, in early June 2025, we debunked a photo allegedly showing a Cybertruck-like 1930 Russian or Soviet "Tarantaika," also known as "Boneshaker." We traced the roots of the picture to Facebook user who told us he created the image with the generative-AI platform Midjourney.
In another case, we analyzed a video that purported to show a helicopter pilot's view of dozens of massive anacondas swimming in a river. The footage showed clear signs of being AI-generated, including the absence of readable letters or numbers on the helicopter's control panel.
AI-Generated Images Claimed to Be of 'Extreme Sunburn Competition' | Logically Facts. https://www.logicallyfacts.com/en/fact-check/false-ai-generated-images-claimed-to-be-of-extreme-sunburn-competition. Accessed 10 June 2025.
Check, Reuters Fact. "Fact Check: Photos of Florida Sunburn Competition Are Fake." Reuters, 7 Aug. 2023. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/photos-of-florida-sunburn-competition-are-fake-idUSL1N39O1RK/.
Cursed AI | Extreme Sunburn Competition in Florida. 13 Aug. 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/20230813163731/https://www.facebook.com/groups/cursedaiwtf/posts/1324157944859352/.
Hive Moderation. https://hivemoderation.com/. Accessed 10 June 2025.
Liles, Jordan. "Helicopter Video Shows Pilot's View of Massive Anacondas Swimming in River?" Snopes, 3 June 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/river-pilot-helicopter-anacondas/.
---. "Photo Shows Cybertruck-like 1930 Russian 'Tarantaika'?" Snopes, 9 June 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/russian-tarantaika-boneshaker-1930/.
"What Is Midjourney AI and How Does It Work?" Android Authority, 19 Mar. 2025, https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-midjourney-3324590/.
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