These photos of the Russian Army’s latest equipment are actually AI-generated
Does the Russian army have new, state-of-the-art military equipment? Photos said to show high-tech Russian tanks, helicopters and rocket launchers have been circulating on Facebook since December 19, largely shared by pro-Russian influencers and Facebook pages claiming to be focused on defence-related content. It turns out, however, that these photos were actually generated by artificial intelligence.
"The best military in the world,” writes one pro-Russian Facebook user on a post featuring an image of a brand-new tank. This is just one of a number of photos said to show state-of-the-art Russian military equipment that have been circulating on Facebook since December 19, 2024, primarily shared by Facebook pages claiming to focus on defence-related content. The images, which show futuristic tanks, stealth helicopters and rocket launchers, have enthused pro-Russian influencers - “don’t mess around with Russia!”
However, it turns out that all of these images are fake and were generated by AI. And this isn’t a one-off.
Take, for example, the Facebook page Up in The space. Originally a banal page dedicated to fans of all things military, it began to share fake photos of Russian tanks only when it garnered a certain number of followers.
A fake image of a tank
Even though the images are clearly fake, some pro-Russian accounts continue to claim that these AI-generated images are real.