Donald Trump’s futuristic vision of Gaza ‘is likely AI-generated’, experts say
Donald Trump’s glittering plan for Gaza, filled with futuristic coastline skyscrapers, was likely AI-generated, experts told Metro.
The US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, gave a presentation last week to world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, about the war-ravaged strip.
It featured a slideshow that depicted dozens of gleaming skyscrapers rising on the enclave’s coast and the construction of new cities.
Metro asked tech experts to run the slides through AI detection tools, which use sophisticated algorithms to pick up on subtle signs that distinguish images made with computers from those created by humans.
They told Metro that it’s ‘likely’ the Trump administration’s images of the $25billion plans were coughed up by AI.
Dr Marco Ramilli, a cybersecurity specialist and the CEO of identifAI, a deepfake tracker, told Metro: ‘The mock-ups of the Gaza cityscapes appear to be AI-generated.
‘Although absolute certainty cannot be guaranteed, the adversarial AI models used by identifAI have indicated, with a very high degree of probability, the presence of AI-generated content.’
Adversarial AI is an artificial model dedicated to catching deepfakes, digital puppets designed to look ultra-realistic.
Despite the images used in the slideshow being low-resolution, Dr Ramilli said the platform’s confidence level is ‘very high’.
Nathan Marlor, head of data and AI at Version 1, believes the ‘Coastal Tourism’ image might be phoney for a few reasons.
‘Flowing, organic tower shapes with greenery draped over them are very characteristic of current AI image generators,’ Marlor explained.
‘They look impressive at a glance but there’s no actual architectural substance; real buildings have floors, structural logic and distinct materials.’
An image of the ‘New Rafah’, Gaza’s southernmost city flattened by Israel’s bombings, is a largely a single building ‘repeated hundreds of times’.
‘The giveaway with AI-generated concept imagery is that it’s very good at surfaces and very bad at substance,’ Marlo added.
‘Everything here has that smooth, even quality – the lighting, the water, the vegetation. It looks like the idea of a futuristic city rather than an actual proposal grounded in engineering or urban planning.’
VerifyLabs.AI, a deepfake detector, found that they appear to have been created using a digital rendering tool.
The company’s CEO, Nick Knupffer, said that developers often use AI technology to convert 2D designs into 3D models
‘However, this also highlights a critical issue,’ he added.
‘When highly polished images are shared without clear context, it becomes increasingly difficult for the public to distinguish between legitimate visualisations and AI-generated content designed to mislead.
‘As more people are exposed to increasingly realistic deepfakes, even imagery shared in good faith creates confusion and mistrust.’
The White House has been approached for comment.
The images were unveiled at the World Economic Forum by the Board of Peace, which Trump says will also oversee the Israel-Hamas truce.
Gaza, a coastal enclave roughly a third the size of London, would be rebuilt in phases, Kushner said.
Construction of Rafah would take about three years, he added.
The Board of Peace mock-ups say some 75 medical facilities and more than 200 educational centres will be built in Rafah.
Israel damaged or destroyed more than two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings, leaving 42 million tonnes of rubble, which the UN estimates will take 14 years to clear.
These include hospitals, with the UN warning last year that Israeli forces damaged 125 medical facilities and 34 hospitals.
After two years of violence, 97% of education facilities in Gaza were flattened, leaving 658,000 children without a school to go to.
These piles of mangled metal and concrete have also blown hazardous materials into the air, a health risk for the 2.1million Gazans in the region.
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