A group of pictures is being shared on social media, claiming them to be photos of the Titan Submersible that imploded (here and here) recently on its way to the historic Titanic wreckage site. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Images of the debris of Titan.
Fact: Three of these four images are AI-generated, and the fourth photo shows the shoes discovered at the wreckage site of the Titanic almost 20 years ago. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To learn more details about the viral photos, we performed a reverse image search on them individually. Through this search, we discovered that these pictures do not show the debris of the Titan Submersible.
Firstly, we found the first three images on Twitter uploaded by an account named “Price of Deepfakes (parody).” One of these photos has a context given to it by the readers, describing it as an artistic impression. In fact, the real images of the Titan debris have not been published officially till now.
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist with BBC Verify, mentioned the same through a tweet. Moreover, the account which posted these images, “Prince of Deepfakes (parody),” also posts AI-generated images (picture of Orson Wells).
Additionally, if we compare the original image of the Ocean Gate Submersible with the one shown in the viral images, the structure of the sub does not match the debris. With this evidence, we can conclude that these images are AI-generated.
Now, regarding the fourth photo, a reverse image search revealed that this picture was, in fact, taken at the Titanic wreckage site almost 20 years ago. The shoes shown in this image could possibly be of one of the Titanic disaster victims.
To sum up, these photos do not show the debris of the Titan Submersible.
