By BONIFACE AKARAH

The Presidency has rejected claims that a widely circulated photograph of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, taken during a meeting in Paris, was generated using artificial intelligence (AI), describing the narrative as false and misleading.

The clarification was issued on Monday morning, January 5, 2025, by Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, following a report by Vanguard newspaper and subsequent social media commentary suggesting the image was AI-generated.

“The narrative that the picture of Presidents Bola Tinubu and Paul Kagame taken in Paris yesterday was AI generated is not correct,” Ajayi said in a statement. “The picture is real and not AI generated as claimed.”

According to the Presidency, President Tinubu and President Kagame met in Paris on Sunday, where they had lunch together before later joining French President Emmanuel Macron for dinner the same evening. Ajayi explained that the photograph in question was taken with a mobile phone and appeared grainy due to poor lighting and image quality.

He noted that the confusion arose after the photographer later used Grok, an AI-powered tool, to enhance the photo’s clarity, stressing that image enhancement should not be conflated with image fabrication.

“The photographer only later used Grok to improve the picture quality. That is not a reason to conclude it was AI generated,” Ajayi stated.

The presidential aide criticised the media outlet and commentators who amplified the claim, arguing that basic verification steps were ignored before drawing conclusions.

“The writer or editor should have asked questions before this wrong conclusion,” he said, describing the report and the reactions that followed as a “deliberate misrepresentation of facts.”

The controversy comes amid growing public sensitivity around the use of artificial intelligence in media and political communication, particularly as AI-generated images and videos increasingly blur the line between authentic and fabricated content.

The Presidency’s statement sought to draw a clear distinction between AI-assisted photo enhancement and AI-generated imagery, insisting that the meeting between the three leaders took place as described and that the photograph accurately captured a real diplomatic engagement in Paris.