Does a viral image showing "17-year-old Rowan Atkinson ... studying electrical engineering at Newcastle University" authentically portray the British comedian best known for playing Mr. Bean? No, that's not true: The image was AI generated. It was identified as such by Google, and Lead Stories' manual review of the picture confirmed that.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July 22, 2025. It opened:
In 1972, 17-year-old Rowan Atkinson was studying electrical engineering at Newcastle University--years before he became famous as Mr. Bean. He went on to earn a master's degree in the same field at The Queen's College, Oxford. While at Oxford, he got involved in comedy and theater, where he discovered his talent for performing. His one-of-a-kind humor and timing helped launch a successful career in TV and film, making him one of Britain's most iconic comedians.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: Lead Stories screenshot of the x.com/historydefined account)
The post implied that the attached image authentically showed Atkinson (archived here). But when Lead Stories performed a reverse image search, the About this image tab (archived here) said it was a product of generative AI:
(Source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google)
According to Google (archived here), when the system shows the AI label in the About this image tab, it means that the image in question has a digital watermark with this information.
The picture has been circulating online at least since April 2025 (archived here), but a reverse image search on Google didn't show credible organizations publishing it on their websites.
A closer examination revealed the inconsistencies pointing to AI, too. For example, in the glasses of the purported Atkinson, two temples are seen on the right side:
(Source: Lead Stories screenshot of the x.com/historydefined account via InVid)
The watch on the man's wrist doesn't have hour marks or a stem:
(Source: Lead Stories screenshot of the x.com/historydefined account via InVid)
Last but not least, the image purporting to show a 17-year-old man portrays that person with nasolabial folds and forehead wrinkles (archived here), which are primarily characteristic of middle age, not teen years.
