An image of an AI-generated brown bear appeared in Daofu County, Sichuan, causing panic. The police punished those who spread rumors in accordance with the law.

Recently, wild brown bears have appeared frequently along the National Highway 331 from the Mangui Forest Area in the Daxingan Mountains of Inner Mongolia to the northern primitive forest area. There are adult brown bears strolling leisurely in the jungle, and there are also mother bears walking with their cubs.

Because the appearance of brown bears attracted attention, some people started to think wrongly. Recently, in Daofu County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan, a picture of a brown bear on the street quickly spread on the Internet, triggering panic among local people. After police investigation, the picture was synthesized by AI.

In the pictures circulating on the Internet, two sturdy brown bears appeared on the street. Uninformed netizens forwarded the picture to their WeChat Moments with the text "Surveillance cameras around the intersection captured it, please be safe," causing panic among the local people.

Resident Tashi Duoji: In the morning, I saw a brown bear coming to the door of the people in the WeChat group. I was very scared when I saw it, and I didn’t even dare to send my baby to school.

To this end, the Cyber ​​Security Brigade of the Daofu County Public Security Bureau immediately carried out verification. Through technical screening, the police confirmed that this picture uploaded online and another picture of a brown bear appearing on the side of the road at the foot of the mountain were all fake pictures synthesized and produced by AI tools. After tracing the source, the police found the producer of the picture, Ni Mai, and the main communicator, Tao.

Yang Yunlue, a police officer from the Internet Security Brigade of Daofu County Public Security Bureau: Nimai just thought it was fun, so he used AI to generate fake pictures. Tao Moumou did not verify the authenticity of the picture, so he determined that it was a real shot taken by surveillance, and publicly forwarded it in his circle of friends. The speed of dissemination on social platforms can easily cause unnecessary panic among the masses.

The police conducted legal education for the two parties, and both of them realized their mistakes and expressed regret for their actions. The public security organs imposed administrative penalties on the two people in accordance with relevant legal provisions. The police remind: Keep your eyes open when faced with online pictures and short video information, rationally distinguish authenticity from falsehood, and do not create, spread or believe rumors.