Did Mark Carney's campaign post an AI-generated photo? We investigated

In online posts that were collectively viewed hundreds of thousands of times, some social media users have claimed that a photo of a Mark Carney campaign event was AI-generated.

Several social media users claim the image, which shows an event held last week at the Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier in North Vancouver, was manipulated in order to create the impression that Carney was speaking in front of a larger crowd. Some users also relied on online AI detector tools that suggested the photo was created using artificial intelligence.

This isn't the only claim that politicians have manipulated images — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been the subject of similar false claims in the past — and experts say the growing sophistication of AI is causing people to be increasingly skeptical of online images and video.

The CBC's visual investigations team obtained the original Carney event image and found no evidence the shots were AI-generated or digitally altered beyond traditional lighting and colour correction techniques. A CBC News cameraperson was also present at the event. Accessing CBC's raw footage, which shows the entire rally, allows for a visual comparison with the campaign photo. 

Carney's campaign says the image was not created with AI.

"It is an authentic image from Mr. Carney's North Vancouver event, and we can confirm its accuracy," the campaign said in a statement.

Carney's campaign provided CBC News with the original photo, which contains metadata — behind-the-scenes information detailing everything from the type of camera used to the exact time the image was taken. In the CBC's footage of the event, the photographer is visible in the background at the precise time, and at an angle that fits with the image.

The controversy illustrates how recent advances in generative AI are causing people to increasingly default to doubting anything they see online, said Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University in South Carolina.

"I think one of the biggest dangers here is not necessarily that the world is going to be full of fake things," he said, "but the simple fact that we won't believe the real things when they're right in front of us."

The Carney image is just the latest instance of claims that politicians have manipulated images. Late last year, several users claimed — in posts viewed tens of thousands of times — that Pierre Poilievre had photoshopped himself into an image at the Toronto Chinatown Festival.

But livestreamed footage shows the exact moment the photo was taken, and the perspective matches with the view at the location of the festival stage in Toronto.

Social media users also made various claims that parts of the Carney campaign image proved it was generated by AI.

For example, one user argued that the hand placement of a person on their phone and that attendees' faces had a "collage"-like nature indicated that they were AI-generated.

But comparing the photo with the CBC's raw footage showed that each of these people is real, and did attend the event.