Photo Of Pregnant Filipina Generated By AI?

There were three photos showing a pregnant girl in different poses that were shared in a Facebook post last 22 December.

"Youngest pregnant girl, nine years old only. This is worrisome," the Tagalog-language post read. "Girls are getting pregnant at a younger age, so my advice to parents is to watch your children closely."

Text overlaid on one of the pictures claims the girl is from General Santos, a city in the southern Philippines.

The images circulated after Philippine media reported in December on a rise in the number of pregnancies in General Santos among teenagers aged between 10 and 14.

Judith Janiola, head of the city's population management office, told AFP on 7 Decembe that "disturbing statistics" showed a rebound in adolescent pregnancies in General Santos since 2023 after three years of decline due to Covid-19 restrictions.

She said their records showed there was a nine-year-old girl who got pregnant in 2022, but information about her has been kept confidential as it involved a minor.

The pictures were also shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook and YouTube and in different languages -- such as Indonesian here and here and Burmese here and here.

However, experts have told AFP the images show signs they were generated using AI.

Siwei Lyu, director of the University of Buffalo's Media Forensics Lab, told AFP on 27 December that an analysis of the images showed there was a "medium to high likelihood" that the photos were created using AI tools, as there are "numerous inconsistencies".

"Images one and three share a nearly identical background in the top right corner, but other elements, such as the yellow box and ceiling, do not align," he explained.

Hany Farid, a media forensics expert at the University of California-Berkeley, also said there are "many implausible inconsistencies" in the photos, including the details in the girl's clothing, shoes and objects in the background.

"I am confident these are AI-generated images," he told AFP on 27 December, adding the inconsistencies are "telltale signs" of AI.