Image of ‘103-year-old bride’ is AI-generated

CLAIM: An image shows a 103-year-old bride.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The image was made using artificial intelligence technology and photo editing software by artist Malik Afegbua, he confirmed to The Associated Press. It was first posted on Afegbua’s Instagram profile with an elaborate backstory that is labeled as “#Fiction.”

THE FACTS: Many users on social media have shared the image on Facebook and Twitter in recent days, suggesting it shows a real centenarian bride.

The image features a beaming bride dressed in a wedding dress accessorized with a pearl necklace and matching earrings. She holds a large bouquet of orange and white flowers.

“Age is nothing more than a number!” reads one Facebook post. “This beautiful bride is 103 years old and just got married for the first time!! Wow!! How many times do we think we are too old to accomplish our dreams or to do something … anything new?”

One tweet states simply: “103 yrs old just getting Married today. Congratulations.” It had received more than 30,700 likes and more than 4,700 shares as of Friday.

But Afegbua told the AP that the woman is not real. He created the image using Midjourney, an artificial intelligence text-to-image generator, as well as photo editing software including Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. His signature appears in its bottom-left corner.

Afegbua, who is also a filmmaker and the CEO of a production company called Slick City Media, shared the image on Instagram in a post with eight others. Seven of the images in the post also picture happy, older brides, while one features a smiling man dressed in a blueish gray suit and a light brown tie.

The post’s caption, which is labeled as “#Fiction,” explains that the images are intended to depict “a group of elderly people aged 60 and above” who decide to plan a joint vow renewal ceremony at the suggestion of a new pastor at the local church.

They are all part of Afegbua’s body of work titled, “The Elder Series.” More images from this series appear on Afegbua’s Instagram.

The image circulating on social media also shows some visual signs that suggest it is synthetic — for example, the bride’s hand appears to have an extra finger. However, experts have told the AP that you can’t always rely on such flaws to identify AI images, as the technology is constantly improving.

AI tools that allow users to generate images that look like real photos are now widely available online and have resulted in many other examples of synthetic content being portrayed as authentic on social media.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.