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AI Image Falsely Claims US F-15E Pilot Captured by Iran

On April 3, Iran downed a US F-15E fighter jet in central Iran. It was reported that the aircraft had two crew members. The US claimed to have rescued one immediately after the downing. However, it was not possible to rescue the second crew member at that time. Both Iran and the US launched search efforts for the missing American service member. Iran even announced a reward equivalent to approximately 50,000 pounds or 66,100 US dollars for anyone who could hand him over alive. Following this, an image was recently circulated on social media claiming that the F-15E pilot had been captured and taken into Iranian custody.

See such images circulated on Facebook Here (Archive), Here (Archive), and Here (Archive).

Fact-Check

An investigation by the Rumor Scanner team reveals that the circulated information claiming the pilot of the downed US F-15E fighter jet in Iran was captured and taken into Iranian custody is incorrect. Furthermore, the media circulated with this claim is not authentic. In reality, an image generated with the help of AI (artificial intelligence) has been circulated to promote this claim.

While investigating the claim, a report published by BBC News was found, which revealed that the US rescued the second crew member on April 5, following two days of continuous searching after the aircraft crashed. A review of Donald Trump’s Truth Social account also uncovered a post containing the same information. In the post, he claimed the successful rescue of the second crew member. Another report by BBC News indicates that the rescued second crew member was the aircraft’s weapons officer. The pilot had already been rescued earlier.

Subsequent investigation also uncovered a video of a press conference held by the White House announcing the rescue of the US service member. During that press conference, Trump also confirmed the rescue of the second F-15E crew member.

Therefore, based on the obtained information, it is confirmed that the claim of Iran capturing and taking custody of the pilot or the missing crew member of the downed US F-15E fighter jet is incorrect.

Currently, there is a noticeable trend of circulating images generated with the assistance of AI on social media to support such false claims. Due to the continuous advancement of AI technology, the frequency of visible anomalies typically found in AI-generated images is constantly decreasing. As a result, it is often difficult to detect these images with the naked eye. No such apparent visual anomalies were observed in the image circulated with this claim either.

To verify whether the circulated image was created using AI technology, the Rumor Scanner team utilized Google’s specialized detection technology, ‘SynthID’. This Google technology embeds an invisible watermark into AI-generated images, videos, or audio, which cannot be seen with the naked eye but can be detected through Google’s proprietary tools. Analyzing the image with SynthID revealed that it was indeed created with the assistance of Google’s AI technology.

Therefore, the circulated information claiming that the pilot of the downed US F-15E fighter jet was captured and taken into Iranian custody is false, and the image circulated with this claim is AI-generated.

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