Viral image of elderly couple stripped and surrounded by rioters in France was 'made or edited with AI'

A viral image of an elderly couple who were reportedly stripped and robbed during the latest riots that have plagued France has been flagged as being made or edited by AI. 

The photo, shared on Sunday, purportedly showed two elderly people wearing nothing but their underwear while surrounded by several men in all-black outfits. 

The image was viewed more than a million times on X, and was shared by several police unions as the country was overrun by rioters this weekend. 

But there are major inconsistencies in the image, and Google's SynthID Detector indicated it was AI generated. 

Reports from French media also indicated the image was created using AI.  

There are several visual errors in the photo. Two 'rioters' were seen sharing the same pair of legs, while the elderly woman's hand appears to be missing a finger. 

On top of this, the faces of two people appear to be merged in the background, while another appears to be missing their bottom half.  

Passing the image through specialist software reveals the image has a watermark that indicates it was made or edited by a generative AI. 

The initial image that was shared on social media indicated it was made using Google Gemini, while a variant of the picture that appeared to be 'clearer' was linked with OpenAI's AI technology. 

In both cases, the images had an invisible watermark known as 'SynthID', which is placed on images that are generated by AI. 

The biggest AI firms in the world, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have signed up to the Google service that allows users to understand whether what they are seeing has been generated by AI. 

Before the image was released, French media reported that an 80-year-old couple at Place de la Republique, a major square in Paris, had been robbed and left nearly naked by rioters. 

But local media also reported that this incident has not yet been confirmed by Parisian police.  

Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron turned down his interior minister's offer to resign, telling him instead on Monday to put an end to barricades and looting and be transparent over intelligence failings, as France licked its wounds from weekend rioting.

The protests follow weeks of student demonstrations with occasional bouts of street violence, rocking the country six months ahead of its next presidential election and increasing pressures over a weak economy and surging debt.

Fears of tensions inside Mr Macron's fragile government over apparent security shortcomings – coming just as the government needs to pass a much-needed budget bill to rein in its finances – are set to further unsettle investors.

At the weekend, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest over what many say are declining and dysfunctional public services that leave citizens to fend for themselves amid cost-of-living pressures.

In many places including the capital Paris, Marseille and the city of Lyon, peaceful protests were quickly hijacked by rioters, leading to scenes of vandalism and chaos. 

France deployed 60,000 police and other security forces on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told France Inter radio, but acknowledged that wasn't enough to control violent crowds in 'certain cities'.

Mr Macron's presidential office, the Elysee, said on Monday that Mr Nunez, a former Paris police chief, offered the president his resignation following the riots.

Mr Macron refused but urged Mr Nunez to urgently come up with new concepts 'to put an end to the barricades and looting,' the Elysee said.

It added that Mr Nunez also needed to 'ensure transparency regarding the failures in foresight and intelligence that led to the violence'.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, a longtime Macron ally, echoed the president's calls on Monday, telling France 2 television there were intelligence failures that left the state vulnerable in the face of what he called 'extreme-left' rioters it had underestimated.