Worthy Christian News > Israel-Palestinian Conflict > AI-Created Gaza Picture Raises Concerns (Worthy News Analysis)

AI-Created Gaza Picture Raises Concerns (Worthy News Analysis)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – A picture created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) about the situation in Gaza that became extremely popular, or “viral,” on social media has blurred the lines between facts and fiction in a world that no longer embraces the truth automatically.

The “All Eyes on Rafah” graphic referring to the troubled southern Gaza City was shared 50 million times on Instagram or other social media platforms, becoming the most-watched picture in AI’s history.

Two Malaysians separated by about 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) take credit for the synthetic image.

Famed Instagram users such as singer and songwriter Dua Lipa, racing driver Lewis Hamilton, and U.S. “supermodel” sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid posted the photo on their platforms, contributing to its success.

The image and slogan went viral after a May 26 Israeli airstrike near a camp for displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah reportedly killed dozens of people, including at least two Hamas commanders hiding there.

The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 45 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the strike. Israel said it had targeted two Hamas commanders and that a secondary explosion caused the deadly fire as Hamas stored munitions there.

The May 26 event Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “tragic mishap” inspired one or more persons to use AI to create a controversial image: the words “All Eyes on Rafah” composed of white tents overlaid on an endless expanse of neatly assembled tents with darker shades and overshadowed by snowy white mountains.

BOLD CAPITALS

Critics say the words displayed in bold capitals and the neat image conflict with the reality on the ground in Rafah.

Yet supporters of the photo contend that AI images are “easier to share” on social media than truthful, unedited pictures from real photojournalists.

It has also underscored the complexities of authorship and ownership in an online landscape increasingly overrun with content created by artificial intelligence.

The story behind the “all eyes on Rafah” graphic likely begins on the northern tip of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.

There, back in February, Zila Abka was reportedly at her home playing around with tech giant Microsoft’s AI tool Image Creator.

Abka is a 39-year-old science teacher and an AI art hobbyist who claims to be a pro-Palestinian activist.

She told U.S. broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) that she wanted to make “a piece of political art” that depicted those sheltering in camps in the Gazan city of Rafah.

ALL EYES

After the phrase “All eyes on Rafah” started going viral, Abka said she instructed the AI tool to create an image with the words spelled out by white tents amid dense rows of other tent encampments.

The words became a rallying cry after a World Health Organization representative used them to draw attention to the region where hundreds of thousands of displaced people fled.

When Microsoft’s Image Creator spit out a graphic, Abka put two watermarks on it: One indicating AI generated it and another saying she was the creator.

She liked it. So, she shared a post on February 14 in her language — Malay — to the Facebook group Prompters Malaya, a gathering place of about 250,000, mostly Malaysians who share AI-generated art, sometimes about the war in Gaza.

“I wanted to spread and highlight the issue and hoped that everybody would do whatever they could to show solidarity with Gazans right now,” Abka told NPR.

From there, she said, she “basically forgot“ about it — until last week, when she saw a very similar image on Instagram, spreading rapidly following the Israeli strike in the city that killed dozens and prompted worldwide condemnation.

But the image was altered with her watermarks gone and the image being expanded to include snow-capped mountains looming over the tents.

SURREALIST TOUCH

It became an almost surrealist touch, an AI riff on Gaza’s Middle Eastern landscape.

At first, she recalled being offended that someone had doctored her image and removed her name. In addition, she said she was alarmed that the “AI generated” disclaimer was missing just as tens of millions of people were re-sharing it across the internet.

But her annoyance over not getting credit soon dissipated. “I don’t think any generated AI image is fully someone’s belonging,” Abka said.

The U.S. Copyright Office has rejected copyright protection for AI-generated images, saying they lack human authorship and placing AI images in a legal gray area.

“If the aim is to spread awareness,” Abka said about the version of the image that went viral, “then I think I should thank that person.”

A journalism investigation showed that Amirul Shah, a college student and photographer in Malaysia known on Instagram as ‘Shahv4012’, posted the altered image that went viral.

While both Malaysians, the two involved in the image do not know each other, nor have they ever communicated, NPR reported.

SOCIAL MEDIA SURGE

Abka believes he took her image, edited it, and created an Instagram “template,” which has since surged on social media, amassing nearly 50 million shares on Instagram and millions more on other social media platforms.

Shah, 21, denied copying Abka’s creation. Instead, he shared a different version of events.

He said he was toying around with an AI image generator recently and claimed he hadn’t seen Abka’s before making his own.

Still, the size of the words, placement of each letter, and AI-generated clusters of tents next to the phrase are identical.

Shah’s version is portrayed from a higher aerial view, with deeper and longer shadows cast by snowy mountains.

He said he was giving all sorts of Gaza-related AI images a try as a form of activism, not angling for virality. “My intention was not for popularity,” Shah told NPR. “I wanted to uphold justice for all Palestinians who are there.”

Technologists say that generating the same AI image twice is unlikely, and journalists could not recreate the image using Microsoft’s Image Creator.

TRUTH NOT POPULAR

Shah, who regularly shares posts on social media highlighting the plight of Palestinians, said he noticed “that real photos and videos of the war tend to have limited reach on Instagram. The picture from AI can spread faster in a short time.”

Shah said truthful graphic images of war are removed by Instagram “for violating the platform’s policies.” He said repeat “violations” can mean that “users can get blocked.”

Felix Simon, a research fellow at the University of Oxford who studies AI’s impact on public discourse, explained that the image being created by artificial intelligence fueled its virality far less than other factors.

“The simplicity of the slogan, the symbolism at work, the timing and political context, and the fact that celebrities shared it” played a role in spreading the message, said Simon. He added that “the lack of graphic content makes it less likely to get taken down, which helps, too.”

While some commentators criticize the image for portraying a sanitized version of war, Abka and Shah reject that idea.

The two disagree on who was first to create the “All Eyes on Rafah” image. However, they agree that AI photos “can be a useful way to grab people’s attention” on issues such as war and peace.

Yet blurring the lines between truth and fiction has spurred a global debate about the authenticity of online activism in a world that increasingly resembles the Matrix, the Hollywood-created simulated reality distracting humans.