Fact Check: AI-generated images falsely presented as mysterious creatures unearthed during Thailand’s King Rama V's reign

A series of four images depicting men posing with giant mysterious “creatures” has gone viral on social media, with users asserting that these entities were excavated during the reign of King Rama V of Thailand.

Rama V, also called Phrachunlachomklao, ruled Siam (now Thailand) from 1873 to 1910.

“Creatures Unearthed in the Time of King Rama V's Reign,” a Facebook account captioned the images while sharing it on January 18.

Several other Facebook and X accounts shared the images claiming the same. Click here and here to see the posts.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the images were created using an AI tool Midjourney.

Upon a reverse image search, we found two among the four viral images shared on X by a premium user, Dr. Clayton Forrester, on April 8, 2023. He stated in the caption that the images show a group of nobles hunting objects, which is inexplicable, during the reign of King Rama V of Thailand. He also mentioned the source of images as Midjourney V5.

We also found all four image images in question posted on a Facebook group, “Midjourney Official”, by a user (ธตรัฐ ไตรณรงค์) on April 7, 2023. The user has mentioned in the account’s introduction that he has been a member of Midjourney Offical since December 27, 2022. We skimmed through the account and found he regularly posts images created by Midjourney. In recent posts, the user has clearly stated that the images were created by Midjourney V6.

Further, we examined the images and found abnormalities — common in the images generated using AI tools. For instance, one photo depicts a man with two hands on the same side, while other images portray men with abnormal body features such as misshapen faces and hands with extra or missing limbs.