There has been a lot of talk online about the photo of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell in the hospital.
If you don’t know, McConnell reportedly was hospitalized on June 14 after losing consciousness while at home in Washington, D.C. There have been few official updates on the status of his health, but just this week, reports alleged that he was brain dead.
Over the weekend, his office finally released a statement and a photo to confirm he’s recovering. The photo featured his wife, Elaine Chao, who had also recently released a statement.
However, many conspiracy theorists online struggled to believe the photo was real, and alleged it was AI generated.
The Washington Post found no evidence the photo was faked
The Washington Post did some investigating to see if the photo is real or fake.
They shared that they “reviewed a copy of the original photo — provided by McConnell’s office at The Post’s request — and found that its metadata appears to show it was taken Sunday.”
They added that an “independent digital forensics expert also said there appeared to be no evidence that the image is fake.”
They continued, “Hany Farid, a digital forensics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, examined the photo and said there is no evidence that the image is fake or AI generated. He said that neither McConnell’s nor Chao’s face looks suspicious, according to an analytical model he used to examine the image. He said that the picture’s lighting is plausible and consistent, and that what is visible of the newspaper in McConnell’s hand is consistent with that day’s Post Sports section.”
Here’s the full health update that his office provided.
Posted To:Elaine Chao Mitch McConnell