"Is Netanyahu real or AI?" an internet headline blared, pointing to a video that supposedly showed the Israeli prime minister with six fingers.

But the clip was real.

Speculation spiraled online that Netanyahu might be dead or wounded in an Iranian strike and that Israel was covering it up with a double generated by artificial intelligence.

"Last time I checked, humans usually don't have 6 fingers... AI does," said one post on X, garnering nearly five million views. "Is Netanyahu no more?"

Digital forensics researchers were quick to explain the "extra" finger: a trick of light that made part of his palm resemble an additional digit.

But that message was largely drowned out in the online uproar. It also mattered little that advanced AI visual generators -- now capable of churning out uncannily real-looking deepfakes within seconds -- have largely erased the once-telltale glitch of extra fingers.

So how do you prove what's real is real when the line between reality and fabrication has blurred so much in the fog of the Middle East war?

A few days later, Netanyahu posted another video -- a proof-of-life clip from a coffee shop.

He held both hands up as if to challenge skeptics to count his fingers.

But instead of quelling the speculation, the video fueled a new wave of unfounded theories.

"More AI," said one viral Threads post, questioning why his cup remained full after a large sip.

Suspicion reigned even after Netanyahu posted a third video, this one with the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.

Some online sleuths zoomed in on Netanyahu's ears, claiming their shape and size did not match older images.

'Same footing as hearsay'

AFP's global network has produced more than 500 debunks of false information in multiple languages since the conflict began -- a rate never before seen in such a crisis. Between a quarter and a fifth of them used AI.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza war and the conflict between India and Pakistan all triggered waves of AI-generated content.

What sets the Middle East war apart is the sheer volume -- and realism -- of AI images produced by advanced tools that are cheap and capable of eliminating many of the old signs of manipulation, researchers........

© Japan Today