The Presidency has dismissed reports suggesting that a photograph of President Bola Tinubu and Rwandan President Paul Kagame was generated by artificial intelligence,AI.
On Sunday, the Presidency released pictures of Messrs Tinubu and Kagame after a meeting in Paris.#
The pictures triggered controversy after internet users discovered a watermark of Grok, an artificial intelligence tool developed by Elon Musk’s xAI.
However, in a statement issued on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, described claims that the picture was AI-generated as a misrepresentation of facts.
Mr Ajayi said the picture is real and was taken during a meeting between the Nigerian president and his Rwandan counterpart on Sunday, where both leaders had lunch together.
He added that later the same day, the two presidents also had dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.
He, however, clarified that the image was captured with a mobile phone of poor quality.
“The picture is real and not AI-generated as claimed.
“Both President Kagame and President Tinubu met in Paris and had lunch together on Sunday.
“The two leaders later had dinner with President Macron the same evening. The picture was taken with a phone and was obviously of poor quality.
“The photographer only later used Grok to improve the picture quality. That is not a reason to conclude it was AI-generated.
“The writer or editor should have asked questions before arriving at this wrong conclusion,” the statement explained.
