AI image used to create false narrative about woman burned to death in New York subway

AAP FACTCHECK – Digitally created photos and misleading posts have falsely identified the person who died in a recent violent subway attack in New York City as a young woman named “Amelia Carter”.

However, the information being spread online is incorrect, and police have confirmed the victim is a different woman.

This hasn’t prevented false claims spreading widely on social media.

“Her name is Amelia Carter and she was burned alive by an illegal alien on a New York subway,” reads the caption on one Facebook post, which shares the image of a young brunette woman.

Many of the posts naming “Amelia Carter” also take an anti-immigration stance, with one post reading: “Biden State Media refuses to post her name and face, because she was a beautiful young white woman whose life was monstrously taken by one of Joe Biden’s savage and racist illegals”.

On December 22, a woman later identified as Debrina Kawam died after being set on fire inside a subway car in Coney Island.

Police confirmed the name of 57-year-old Ms Kawam, from Toms River, New Jersey, on December 31.

Photographs of Ms Kawam that have been released bear no resemblance to the viral images claiming to be of “Amelia Carter”.

Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, has been charged with first and second degree murder and arson. He is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, who was deported in 2018 and subsequently returned to the US illegally.

The false name and image of “Amelia Carter” appears to have first been shared on the same day as the killing by an X account that also promotes cryptocurrency, claiming to be a statement by the victim’s family in which they demanded “Justice for their innocent 29 year old Amelia”.

A reverse image search of the woman in the photo only found posts about the subway attack.

Ms Kawam appears to have been homeless, according to Brooklyn district attorney Eric Gonzalez, which delayed efforts to identify her.

Multiple experts told AAP FactCheck the image of “Amelia Carter” being shared was likely generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

AI artist and researcher Dr J Rosenbaum told AAP FactCheck the shared image bears all the signs of AI, as hair, eyes or nostrils can reveal inconsistencies and “some bits will be really in focus and some parts will be blurred or liquefying”.

“These images appear to be StyleGAN2, which is designed to create portraits, and they are often less idealised than generative AI portraits, so the trick with them is to find where the system might be translating between features, because that is where the problems happen,” Dr Rosenbaum said.

Siwei Lyu, an expert in the detection of deepfakes and digital media forgeries, also said the image appeared to be from StyleGAN2, and his detection model “shows nearly 100 per cent confidence in this detection”.

Professor Lyu said it bears a strong resemblance to images from sources such as AI image generator ThisPersonDoesNotExist.

The AI image is also being used to flog a cryptocurrency token called “Justice for Amelia”, which appeared to launch shortly after the posts on X showing the same image.

Scams and fake news have plagued cryptocurrency.

Dr Rosenbaum called the Amelia tokens “absolutely a grift”, adding that it appeared the creators were attempting to create a wave of sympathy “to get rich quick”.

Other posts also calling for the deportation of all illegal immigrants are being shared using an image of an actual Amelia Carter.

They appear to have been taken from the X account profile of a London interior designer of the same name.

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