The Presidency has refuted claims that a photograph showing President Bola Tinubu and Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, during a meeting in Paris, France, was generated using artificial intelligence.
A photograph released by the Presidency on Sunday showing Tinubu meeting with the Rwandan leader in Paris sparked debate after users on X (formerly Twitter) suggested it was artificially generated.
The image, which carried a watermark from Grok, an AI tool developed by Elon Musk’s xAI company, circulated widely on social media on Sunday. It showed Tinubu and Kagame seated together during what was described as a private engagement in the French capital.
A statement on Monday by Temitope Ajayi, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, described the reports and the accompanying social media reactions as a “misrepresentation of facts.”
Ajayi maintained that the image was authentic, stressing that both leaders met in person and shared meals during their engagements in Paris on Sunday.
He said, “The narrative that the picture of Presidents Bola Tinubu and Paul Kagame taken in Paris yesterday was AI-generated is not correct.”
According to him, “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.”
Ajayi explained that the controversy arose because the original photograph, taken with a mobile phone, was of poor quality and was later enhanced using the Grok tool.
“The picture was taken with a phone and obviously had poor quality. The photographer only later used Grok to improve the picture quality. That is not a reason to conclude it was AI-generated,” he said.
He faulted reports suggesting otherwise, arguing that journalists ought to have verified the facts before publishing.
“The writer or editor should have asked questions before this wrong conclusion,” Ajayi added.