An AI-generated photo of a little girl sitting beside a snow leopard is shared with a false narrative
A photo (here,here, here and here) of a little girl allegedly from the Gilgit Baltistan area, named Gulmina, sitting next to a snow leopard is being widely shared on social media. It is claimed that the little girl has raised this snow leopard, which has now grown up and often comes to visit her. Through this article, we fact-check this claim.
Claim: This photo shows a girl named Gulmina with a snow leopard she raised in Gilgit Baltistan.
Fact: This is a fabricated story, and the, photo is, in fact, an AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated image made using the tool Midjourney. This fact was stated by the creator of the photo on his Instagram account. Therefore, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify the validity of the viral photo, we first performed a reverse image search. This leads us to the original upload (archive) of this photo on Instagram, on an account named @babrakk, who posts such realistic AI-generated images; babrakk is a CGI artist.
In response to a user query about how the photo was taken, babrakk revealed that it was made using the tool Midjourney. Midjourney is an AI tool that allows users to generate images by giving text prompts.
Babrakk further clarified this in an Instagram story, calling the photo a piece of art and mentioning Midjourney.
To sum up, the viral story of a girl named Gulmina from Gilgit Baltistan who supposedly raised a snow leopard is false. This is an AI-generated image as confirmed by the creator of the image.