“There are already our great-grandparents who already had the beginnings of artificial intelligence, they were already making robots in 1924”, marvels an Ivorian Internet user on Facebook, in a post liked more than 26,000 times since June 19. The young woman comments on a sepia-toned photo showing three people posing with a human-shaped robot. In the image, a few words give a misleading semblance of context: “Tuskegee University around 1924”. This American university, founded in the 19th century in Alabama, mainly welcomes African-American students.
Some Internet users in the comments salute the supposed historical feat, while others denounce a “photomontage”. A reverse image search does not return to any reliable source, suggesting that it is an image created by artificial intelligence. The image has also been relayed in several TikTok videos.
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“This image is not authentic,” confirms a spokesperson for the university to 20 minutes. The composition of the image, the falsely retro tone indeed strongly suggests that it is an image created by artificial intelligence. The figure of the man on the left is also suspicious. In an authentic university photo album dating from around 1920, the photographs are black and white.
Tuskegee University’s Robotics Laboratory was founded in 2009. Its students are trained in robotics but also in artificial intelligence. Will flushing out such images be one of their future research projects?