Is a viral image showing Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman and Jeffrey Epstein eating sushi together a real photograph? No, that's not true: The image originated on an X account that says it posts "high quality AI videos and memes" to expose "dumb" people. According to Google's Gemini tool the image contained a SynthID watermark, indicating it was made with AI.
The image appeared in a post on X (archived here) where it was published on February 3, with a comment that read:
Who the hell was the photographer behind all these insane images being released?
This was the image in the post:
(Image source: https://x.com/DumbFckFinder/status/2018695018945404946)
The @DumbFckFinder X account (archived here) is a parody account that describes itself this way:
Helping free America from DumbFuckery one DumbFuck at a time, Left, Right, we find em all and expose via high quality AI videos and memes. Alt account
@ENIMEMES
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
Additionally, Lead Stories uploaded the image to Google's Gemini (conversation archived here) which used the watermarking tool SynthID (archived here) ("A tool to watermark and identify content generated through AI") to determine the image was edited or generated with Google's own AI tools:
Gemini said:
This image appears to show Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Zuckerberg, and Reid Hoffman, but it is not a real photograph.
Based on my analysis, most or all of this image was generated or edited using Google's AI tools, as it contains a SynthID digital watermark.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of conversation with gemini.google.com.)
In the days after the image was first posted a different version started circulating on social media (archived here) where the woman on Zuckerberg's lap was covered up by a red triangle:
(Image source: https://x.com/mhdksafa/status/2019757329277722645)
That version image still showed the "DFF" watermark from the original account that posted it.
